Mitsubishi recalls cars in Russia over Takata airbags

Japan's Mitsubishi Motors has recalled 47,800 cars in Russia to change their airbags made by Takata, the company at the heart of the biggest-ever safety recall in the industry.

A representative of Mitsubishi Motors in Russia told AFP in an emailed comment that the company is telling owners of Mitsubishi L200 pickups that it is necessary to change the airbag inflators and inviting them to service centres for the free procedure.

"The service campaign is due to the recall over Takata airbags," spokeswoman Yekaterina Kolesnikova said.

Russia's Rosstandart technical watchdog agency said the recall concerns L200 cars sold between February 2007 and February 2016 and has to do with "incorrect deployment of the airbag" that is possible in some cases.

Tokyo-based Takata has been hammered by a defect in its airbag inflators linked to at least 15 deaths and scores of injuries worldwide, and about 100 million Takata airbags have been recalled.

The cause of the defect, which can send metal and plastic shrapnel from the inflator canister hurtling toward drivers and passengers when an airbag is deployed, has not been precisely identified. Takata supplies many various models produced by Toyota, Jaguar Land Rover, and Honda.