Volvo recalls cars because of air bags, fuel leak

Volvo dealerships in both Shanghai and Beijing said yesterday that they are working on a list of car owners who are entitled to have their cars recalled for potential safety risks.

"We will call the owners once we have determined which cars are within the recall range. Official recalls will start tomorrow," an after-sales staff at a Beijing Volvo store surnamed Zhang told the Global Times Sunday.

Another after-sales staff at a Volvo store in Shanghai said they are "waiting for e-mails from producers for specific plans of recall, which may involve repairing or replacing auto parts."

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, China's quality regulator, announced Friday that Volvo will recall some 12,000 imported S60 and XC60 cars for potential safety risks. The regulator said the vehicles, produced from May 16 through October 6, 2011, need repair of a wire harness beneath the front seats that may interfere with air bags.

The automaker will also recall another 1,679 of the same models to inspect the underbody coating which may penetrate the fuel lines and cause leakage, the regulator said.

Though no casualty or deaths have been linked with the potential defects, the recall raised concerns among Chinese consumers who expressed disappointment at the news, given the automaker's reputation for producing safe cars.

A Beijinger surnamed Tian driving a Volvo S60 said yesterday that he hoped there will "be no more recalls due to safety concerns" though he was kind of "relieved" that recalls happened before accidents.

Volvo conducted eight recalls in China last year involving some 8,500 units which accounted for 18 percent of the whole years' sales volume, Caijing magazine reported earlier this month.

Cui Dongshu, deputy secretary-general of the National Passenger Car Association, believed that "for giants like Volvo, a single recall won't be a serious blow to market share. But repeated recalls can erode the confidence of Chinese consumers, who have less exposure to auto recalls than their Western counterparts."

Yale Zhang, a Shanghai auto analyst, said "lack of a sound recall mechanism in China is a bigger concern" compared with single recalls of cars.

"China lacks a legal framework that can hold producers responsible if faulty vehicles cause accidents. In many cases, both domestic and foreign carmakers treat recalls for trivial faults as an opportunity to be seen as being 'responsible', yet fail to admit problems with major parts like brake," Zhang told the Global Times.