By Chris Williamson-
Over 3 million Australian cars are due to be recalled, in one of the largest product recall in the country.
Compulsory recall list includes 875,000 from new manufacturers including Ford, Holden, and others.
The Federal Government today announced a new, compulsory recall of 2.7 million cars affected by the defective Takata airbags.
The airbags have been linked with 20 deaths globally, including one death in Australia last year.
Cars on the compulsory recall list include various models that have already been subject to a voluntary recall — Toyota, Mazda, Honda, BMW, Chrysler, Lexus, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru and several others.
Models from other manufacturers previously unidentified in the voluntary recall will also be subject to the compulsory recall.
Among the new manufacturers on the list are Ford, GM Holden, Mercedes Benz, Tesla, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volkswagen, Audi, and Skoda.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has ordered those manufacturers to provide a list of Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) of the 850,000 additional affected vehicles by April 3. Those VINs will then be added to the existing compulsory recall list.
The assistant minister to the treasurer, Michael Sukkar, announced the recall on Wednesday morning.
“The sad thing about this is that this has been waiting in the wings for months and months,” Labor’s consumer affairs spokesman, Tim Hammond, told reporters in Canberra.
“It is an indictment of this government that they have taken so long to pull the trigger on a compulsory recall.”
CAR MANUFACTURERS
Manufacturers Ford, Holden, and Volkswagen are among the carmakers that will be expected to urgently replace the airbags, which can explode.
“We put the safety of Australians first and foremost at all times,” the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, told reporters.
The Australian compulsory recall is one of the largest ever made in the country’s history and follows voluntary recalls by car makers last year affecting 1.7 million vehicles.