2015 Witnessed Highest Number of Recalls in Indian Auto History

BENGALURU: Automobile industry adopted the voluntary code of recall in July 2012 but it was only last year, the vehicle manufacturers became more liberal in announcing recalls. According to the figures released by the ministry of heavy industries last month, there are over 1.3 million cars that were recalled between July-2012 and Dec-2015 and another half a million cars were recalled by Volkswagen, Honda and General Motors, reports ET.

More than 1 million recalls happened in 2015 alone out of 1.8 million recalls since 2012. In Dec 2015, Volkswagen recalled nearly 3.23 lakh units of all the vehicles with EA189 engine but  the company suggested that these recalls isn’t related with the emission scandal but was recalled only to update the engines.

Before Volkswagen’s recall, Honda recalled 2.23 lakh units in September to replace the airbags that includes the cars like CR-V, City, Civic, Jazz. Honda also recalled more than 11,000 units earlier in May and 90,000 units in December again.

In July, The American automaker General Motors has recalled over 1.5 lakh units of its hatchbacks Chevrolet Spark and Beat, and it’s MUV Enjoy. Toyota Motors, which is known for its quality standards, also made recalls of over 7,000 units of its Corolla in 2015.

India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki made a recall of over 33,000 units in March to fix the right hand door hatch assembly, while Tata Motors and Hyundai were the only car makers who did not make any recall in 2015.

When coming to two-wheelers, Honda recalled 13,700 units of CBR250R and CBR150R which were manufactured between July-2014 to June-2015, to fix faulty starter relay switch which was leading to interruption of motorcycle's battery voltage to the electrical system. The legendary American bike maker Harley Davidson had no exception as it made recalls close to  3,700 of its street750  to fix fuel pump inlet. Yamaha Motor India recalled just 9 units which include 7 units of YZF-R1 and 2 units of YZF-R1M. 

"One reason that I could see for such high number of recalls this year is that the manufacturers now want to be more careful as customers in India are increasingly getting aware of what the quality standards are globally," said Kumar Kandaswamy, Senior Director, Deloitte. "Big brands don't want to get caught after the defect is detected."

"Voluntary recall per se is not considered bad in India. It is only when a defect is caught and then a recall is made, that the brand name is impacted drastically." He added.

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