Faulty airbags: 80% of the problem “solved by Christmas”, promises the boss of Stellantis

2024-09-20 12:28:21

Carlos Tavares, boss of Stellantis, returned this Friday morning to the issue of defective airbags installed in Citroën C3 and DS3 in an interview on RTL. Radio met him while filming the show Turbo on M 6 which will be broadcast on Sunday September 22 at 11:20 am.

“I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to our customers, DS and Citroën, for obviously the disruption this has caused in their lives,” he explained, adding: “What I told them is that we have put in too much. sources, 60,000 courtesy cars throughout Europe, I believe 25,000 in France, doubling of airbag production capacities, 100,000 cars repaired in the space of a few weeks, and we hope to pass the 200,000 mark in October . “

There are 167,000 airbags to replace

To date in France, 91,000 airbags have been replaced on the Citroën C3 and DS3. There are 167,000 airbags to replace. “We will be asking other Stellantis brands other than Citroën and DS to help increase the contribution force to reproduce these popular airbags. We have gone so far as to organize teams that come to our customers’ homes to change the airbags,” he added, setting the goal of having “80% of the problem solved by Christmas.”

It is true that a user group has been created and today 2,300 complaints against the group with requests for compensation have been filed. The gas used to explode the air bag has an effect that decreases over time, under the action of heat and humidity. The result: these air sacs can explode at any time. “We have recorded at least 12 deaths and 14 serious injuries in France since 2017, including 13 C3s and 2 DS,” indicates Coppets lawyers, specializing in personal injury law, which supports many victims or families of victims. From 2019, Citroën began to organize the first targeted memorial services in Guadeloupe, Guyana and Martinique.

Carlos Tavares remembers that this airbag problem does not only affect the Stellantis team. “We have exceeded 100 million vehicles equipped with Takata airbags recalled worldwide,” he emphasized. BMW has just announced in France a new recall for airbags, that is 266,000 cars.