Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 25, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleFrance recalls 800,000 cars over Takata airbags after a fatal incident in Reims, expanding the total to 2.5 million vehicles.
By Gilles Guillaume and Makini Brice
PARIS (Reuters) -France is ordering an extra 800,000 cars with Takata airbags to be taken off the road, two weeks after a woman died in the northeastern town of Reims from injuries related to a faulty airbag.
The move is the latest twist in the auto industry's biggest-ever product recall, eight years after the company at the centre of the crisis - Japan's Takata Corp - filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States and Japan.
After her 2014 Citroen C3 was hit by a truck, the woman in Reims died after she was struck by a metal piece expelled by an airbag that was ejected from her car, the Reims prosecutor's office said.
Citing the incident, French transport minister Philippe Tabarot said late Tuesday that all cars with the technology should be recalled, no matter how old they were.
He also ordered all manufacturers to tell drivers in Corsica and other overseas departments to stop driving vehicles with the Takata airbags, whatever their production year, until they are repaired, and issued the same order for all cars with such equipment produced until 2011 in mainland France.
The government had previously said vehicles built between 1998 and 2019, from 30 brands, could potentially be recalled.
According to a ministry estimate based on carmaker data, the expanded recall will bring the total to 2.5 million. Within that total, the ministry has doubled the number of compulsory recalls - or so-called "stop drive" orders - to 1.7 million.
French government spokesperson Sophie Primas said on Wednesday the expanded recall was being undertaken out of an abundance of caution.
Takata, which was mainly acquired by a Chinese-owned, U.S.-based company, said at the time of its bankruptcy filing that it had recalled or expected to recall about 125 million vehicles worldwide by 2019.
Representatives for Takata's new owner were not immediately available to comment.
(Reporting by Makini Brice, Gilles Guillaume and Dominique Vidalon. Editing by Mark Potter)
France is recalling an additional 800,000 cars with Takata airbags following the death of a woman in Reims due to a faulty airbag incident.
The expanded recall was prompted by a tragic incident where a woman died from injuries caused by a metal piece expelled by a Takata airbag.
The total number of vehicles affected by the Takata recall in France will reach 2.5 million after the additional 800,000 cars are recalled.
French transport minister Philippe Tabarot ordered all cars with Takata airbags to be recalled, regardless of their production year, and advised drivers in overseas departments to stop using these vehicles until repairs are made.
Following its bankruptcy filing, Takata Corp stated it had recalled or expected to recall about 125 million vehicles worldwide due to airbag safety issues.
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