GM recalls nearly 1M vehicles over potential air bag defect

General Motors (NYSE:GM) said Friday it is recalling nearly 1M sport utility vehicles in the U.S., responding to a push by federal regulators to recall 67M defective air bag inflators due to a potential safety defect.

The recall covers 994,763 Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia vehicles in the 2014-17 model years with modules produced by ARC Automotive, which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said could explode and spray shrapnel around a vehicle.

But ARC has rejected the regulator's request so far, denying its products are defective and saying that any problems with air bags "resulted from random 'one-off' manufacturing anomalies that were properly addressed" with individual recalls.

The company said NHTSA's tentative conclusion that a defect exists is based upon seven field ruptures in the U.S., and "then asks ARC to prove a negative, that the 67 million inflators in this population are not defective" that were produced over 18 years.

In addition to GM cars, ARC's air bag inflators are in vehicles produced by Chrysler parent Stellantis (STLA), BMW (OTCPK:BMWYY), Hyundai (OTCPK:HYMLF) (OTCPK:HYMTF) and Kia (OTCPK:KIMTF).

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