Recalls due to vehicle safety hit 3-year high; Maruti Suzuki tops the charts yet again

With 2019 coming to a close, an estimated 3.25 lakh recalls were made by car and bike manufacturers this year, making it the highest in three years.

More than a dozen manufacturers of motorcycles, cars and sports utility vehicles (SUVs) have announced recalls in 2019, which was higher by 30 percent compared to 2018 and four times compared to 2017.

The recalls were made to address critical issues such as untimely inflation of airbags or a malfunction in its deployment, fuel leakage, loss in braking power, burst of gas generator, faulty installation of CNG filter assembly, incorrect speed reading abnormal vibrations, issues with wiring harness and batteries and less critical ones like software update to name a few.

Maruti Suzuki topped the charts with little over 1.07 lakh recalls of its popular models such as Baleno, Wagon R, Ertiga and Ciaz. Ford followed with nearly 53,000 recalls of Figo, Freestyle, Aspire and Endeavor. In 2018, Maruti Suzuki recalled 61,300 units.

Mercedes-Benz led the list of recalls made by luxury carmakers with a total of 17,200 units of the CLA, GLA, GLE, GLS, E Class and C Class. Audi followed next with around 8,200 recalled units of the A3, A6 and A7. Mercedes, which is the leading luxury car maker in India, topped the list in 2018, too, when it recalled nearly 19,000 cars.

It was Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India, the country’s second largest two-wheeler maker, to record the biggest two-wheeler recall in 2019. The Delhi-based company recalled over 50,000 units of the Aviator, Activa 125, Grazia and CB Shine. It was Honda in 2018, too, which recorded the maximum recalls among the two-wheeler makers.

While airbag, steering malfunction and possible fire pose a high risk of serious injuries or even death of vehicle occupants, India adopted its first serious vehicle recall policy as late as September 1. Moreover, the recall data for trucks, buses and three-wheelers were not available for computation.

Until a few months ago, automakers followed a voluntary recall policy as it was not mandated by the central government. Some automakers prefer not calling the recall exercise as a recall due to negative connotation attached to the definition.

The industry’s apex lobby body, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), does not have the details of all the recalls made by the industry, with only a little over one-third of the data disclosed on its website.

But, with the adoption of the new Motor Vehicle Act that was brought into force from September 1, it has become difficult for automotive companies to avoid making an announcement of recalls as the Centre will keep a record of it.

“Where a manufacturer notices a defect in a motor vehicle manufactured by him, he shall inform the central government of the defect and initiate recall proceedings and in such case the manufacturer shall not be liable to pay a fine,” states the Act.

Moreover, the act empowers the government to direct manufacturers to enforce a recall in the event of a failure on the part of the manufacturer to do so. The government may cite examples of vehicle defects from certain percentage of owners or a vehicle testing agency to justify the recall.

The sections 110A and 110B relating to recall were newly added after an outcry over the fact that India being the fifth largest car market and the largest two-wheeler market in the world did not have an official recall policy. The Act also empowers vehicle buyers to seek a full refund of the cost of the vehicle or a total replacement.

India saw sales of 26.26 million vehicles in 2018-19, a rise of 5 percent compared to 24.98 million sold in 2017-18. Passenger vehicles saw sales of 3.37 million while two-wheeler saw 21.18 million sales, as per SIAM data.