NHTSA: 19.2M U.S. Vehicles Still Have Defective Takata Air Bags

U.S. safety regulators said on Tuesday that 19.2 million vehicles in the United States still have defective Takata Corp <7312.T> air bag inflators.

About 4 million of those vehicles have defective air bag inflators made by Takata on both the driver and passenger sides of the vehicle, according to an official from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

In total, an estimated 23.4 million defective air bag inflators from Takata remain in U.S. cars, SUVs and trucks, the NHTSA official said.

Earlier, the NHTSA had said there were more than 30 million defective air bag inflators in U.S. vehicles. The reduced figure was due in part to double-counting of vehicles in previous estimates, the NHTSA official said.

The NHTSA recalled Takata air bags after some of them exploded with too much force, sending deadly shrapnel into the vehicle.

The NHTSA also said it has not yet been able to determine the root cause for the defective Takata air bag inflators.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall in Detroit; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)