Toyota adds 1.4m vehicles to Takata air bag recall

DETROIT: Toyota is adding nearly 1.4 million cars, trucks and SUVs to a growing recall for air bags that can explode with too much force.

The company says it's expanding a previous recall after Takata Corp. of Japan agreed in May to double the size of its air bag inflator recall to 33.8 million.
Vehicles added to a passenger air bag inflator recall include the 2003 to 2007 Corolla and Matrix, 2005 and 2006 Tundra pickup, 2005 to 2007 Sequoia SUV and the 2003 to 2007 Lexus SC430 convertible.
The propellant in some Takata inflators can burn too quickly, blowing apart a metal canister and sending shrapnel into the passenger compartment. The problem has been blamed for at least seven deaths and more than 100 injuries.
Last month Takata bowed to pressure from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and declared many of its products defective, agreeing to double the number of air bag inflators being recalled. It's now the largest auto recall in US history. Some cars are equipped with both driver and passenger air bags made by Takata.
The recall expansion brings to 2.9 million the number of Toyota and Lexus vehicles being recalled in the US due to the inflators.
Toyota said in a statement that it's committed to customer safety. "We will continue to respond promptly to new developments so we can resolve issues for them as quickly and safely as possible," said Dino Triantafyllos, chief quality officer.
The giant recall covers driver and passenger air bags in cars and trucks made by 11 automakers. Takata, the automakers and NHTSA are still trying to determine what exactly causes the inflators to malfunction.
Meanhwile, Toyota on Wednesday defended a controversial new share sale that critics, led by overseas institutional investors, derided as a bid to tame shareholder activism.
The world's biggest automaker said 75 percent of shareholders voted in favor of the plan on Tuesday that will see it sell up to 50 million new shares, which must be held for five years and will not be publicly traded.
Largely restricted to Japanese investors, the new "Model AA" stocks carry voting rights and will be priced between 26-30 percent above the value of its common shares during several trading days in July.
The Tokyo-listed stock slipped 0.68 percent to 8,338 yen ($68) by the break Wednesday.
Dividends paid on the new shares will rise from 0.5 percent to 2.5 percent by the end of the five-year holding period when investors can convert them to common shares or Toyota would repurchase them, it said.
The firm said the move was aimed at luring long-term investors, but critics said it ran afoul of Japan's new corporate governance code, adopted earlier this month.
The new rules were hailed as ushering in a new era of transparency for shareholders of Japanese firms, long criticized for giving vocal investors the cold shoulder.
"An objective of Japan's newly expanded Corporate Governance Code, is to 'promote mid- to long-term investments' so that shareholders who hold company-issued shares for a medium to long term have the potential to become important partners for companies," Toyota said.
It added that the new share issue would help fund expensive research work, particularly on next-generation technology such as fuel cell cars.