Aston Martin expanded
a recall on Wednesday to cover most of its sports cars built since late
2007 after discovering a Chinese sub-supplier was using counterfeit
plastic material in a part supplied to the British luxury sports
carmaker.
Owned by Kuwaiti and private equity investors, Aston
Martin said it would now recall 17,590 cars, including all of its
left-hand drive models built since November 2007 and all right-hand
drive models built since May 2012.
That affects about 75 percent of all vehicles built in that period, a spokeswoman said, with only its Vanquish model not being affected.
An Aston Martin Australia spokesperson has confirmed that 156
locally-delivered cars will be affected by the recall, and that all
owners will be contacted immediately to replace the faulty parts as soon
as possible.
The spokesperson said that no failures have been reported in Australia due to the issue.
Aston Martin found that Shenzhen Kexiang Mould Tool Co
Limited, a Chinese subcontractor that moulds the affected accelerator
pedal arms, was using counterfeit DuPont plastic material, according to
documents filed with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration.
The material was supplied by Synthetic Plastic Raw Material Co Ltd of Dongguan, according to the documents.
The cars are being recalled from model years 2008 through
2014 because the accelerator pedal arm may break, increasing the risk of
a crash, according to the NHTSA documents. The engine would return to
idle and the driver would be unable to maintain or increase speed,
according to the documents.
Aston Martin spokeswoman Sarah Calam said there had been no
reports of accidents or injuries related to the issue and 22 failed
parts had been reported in the US. She said the financial impact to the
automaker was small, but did not quantify the total.
The cost of the recall is of great interest because Aston
Martin has struggled to fund the development of a range of new vehicles
while rivals like Bentley, owned by Volkswagen , and Rolls Royce, owned
by BMW, have the ability to draw on the resources of their parent firms.
Aston Martin's owners include Italian private equity fund Investindustrial, Kuwait-based Adeem Investment and Prime Wagon.
Germany's Daimler AG also has stake of less than 5 percent in the British automaker.
The latest recall replaces one announced last May and expanded in October.
Because of the issue, Aston Martin is now being supplied directly by a DuPont distributor.
Both Aston Martin and chemical company Dupont sent people
to China to directly supervise the production of all pedal arms,
including verifying each bag of DuPont plastic material, Calam said.
The automaker plans to shift production of the pedal arms
from China to the United Kingdom "as soon as possible" in 2014, she
said.
Last May, Aston Martin initially recalled 2,832 cars globally
to replace the accelerator pedal arm after finding the affected part
included material that did not meet specifications, Calam said.
After another arm broke that was not part of that group, the
company expanded the recall to 16,825 cars and required the use of
material made by DuPont.
When one of the replacement parts broke in December during
installation by a U.S. dealer in Connecticut, however, Aston Martin
froze the recall and found the counterfeit plastic material was being
used in place of the DuPont material, she said.
The recall includes all the cars previously repaired, Calam
said. Under the recall, Aston Martin will replace the accelerator pedal
assemblies.
The manufacturer of the throttle pedal assembly that included
the counterfeit material is Precision Varionic International Limited,
according to the NHTSA documents.
The company's quality director, John Penman, did not immediately return calls and messages seeking comment.
It is not the first time DuPont has dealt with piracy in relation to China.
U.S. prosecutors indicted a California businessman in 2011
with stealing DuPont trade secrets in order to sell them to a Chinese
company. That trial is ongoing.
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