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Honda Motor is in talks with several suppliers besides Takata Corp about securing replacement parts for vehicles recalled over defective Takata-made airbags, people with knowledge about the matter said.

Whether Takata can manufacture parts quickly enough to replace millions of airbag inflaters that are at risk of exploding is becoming a focal point among US lawmakers and auto safety regulators.

In the US, around 10mn vehicles with Takata-made airbags have been recalled over the last six years, mostly by Honda. The inflaters inside these airbags are at risk of exploding and shooting out metal shrapnel, a problem that is linked to at least five deaths and 45 injuries on Honda-made cars.

Lawmakers grilled officials from Takata and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in a US Senate committee hearing on Thursday, asking whether Takata could meet demand for replacement parts on its own.

Takata is producing 300,000 inflater replacement kits a month and plans to boost that to 450,000 kits a month, said Hiroshi Shimizu, a Takata executive overseeing quality assurance, at the Senate hearing. The company is set to start operating two new lines at its inflater plant in Mexico in January.  At the current pace of production, it could take two to three years for auto makers to complete repairs for recalled vehicles, said David Friedman, NHTSA’s deputy administrator. NHTSA has contacted two other airbag makers, he said, without stating their names.

Honda, Takata’s biggest customer, said working with other suppliers was a “consideration” but declined to comment further. The people familiar with the matter said this week that Honda was now talking to other suppliers. One of the people said Honda is close to finding at least one other supplier.

One Honda engineer said that getting alternative supplies wasn’t impossible but difficult because so much extra engineering was needed to ensure that the new airbag worked with other parts of the car.

BMW, General Motors and Nissan Motor have said in written responses to NHTSA that quickly obtaining replacement parts from suppliers other than Takata wouldn’t be feasible. Toyota Motor has said it is evaluating whether it could turn to other suppliers.

BMW, in comments echoed by other car makers, told NHTSA that steps needed to adopt a non-Takata replacement part could take up to two years and “divert the limited BMW available resources.” Nissan said the air bag’s volume and shape, among other specifications, would have to be adjusted.  The cost of the design changes would be an issue, too. It isn’t clear who would foot the bill if a car maker turned to another supplier to replace a defective Takata part.

To supply enough inflater replacement kits by mid-2015, Takata needs to manufacture one million kits a month, said Scott Upham, chief executive of Valient Automotive Market Research and a former manager at Takata and a rival airbag maker, TRW Automotive Holdings.

Should auto makers and Takata expand recalls that are currently limited to certain hot and humid US regions, it would need to reach out to other suppliers, he said.

“Cooperation with major competitors – TRW Automotive, Autoliv and Daicel Corp – would be required to produce these kits by the end of 2015,” Upham said in an e-mail.

TRW and Autoliv of Sweden couldn’t be reached immediately for comment on Friday. A Daicel spokesman said the company hasn’t received any specific requests to date.

Takata’s Shimizu said the company believes airbag explosions involve three factors: aged airbag inflaters, persistent exposure to high humidity and production problems. NHTSA’s Friedman said the median time of failure for these air bags is 10 years.

Akihiro Ohta, Japan’s minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, reiterated on Friday that the ministry has ordered Takata to investigate its problems. The ministry, which oversees automotive safety recalls, is also instructing auto makers to check whether additional recalls are needed over Takata airbags, he said.  Takata shares rose 9% on Friday to ¥1,252, as investors cheered the absence of major new damaging revelations at the Senate hearing. Takata shares have fallen 58% since the beginning of this year.

 

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