Luxury automaker Ferrari has revealed that thousands of its cars are being recalled due to safety concerns relating to their airbags.
“The issue is a possible production defect in a component inside the airbags, which were fitted to around 2,600 cars,” a Ferrari spokesman told AFP.
This builds on earlier reports from the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announcing that more than 800 of the cars were being recalled in North America alone.
The airbags which triggered the recall were produced by Japanese firm Takata, a company already embroiled in complications from one of the world’s largest car recalls due to faulty products.
In this case however, the airbags themselves were not faulty, but instead “incorrectly assembled”.
“This issue is not related to the other recall made by other manufactures for Takata airbags,” the Ferrari spokesperson said.
Rather, the driver side airbag was incorrectly orientated when installed, and when trigged would “deploy in a rotated orientation” causing a safety risk to the driver, according to statements by Ferrari.
While this recall only affects a small number of cars, compared to the 34 million vehicles affected by Takata’s defective airbags, it represents a significant portion of the high-end automaker’s output.
In 2014, Ferrari sold just 7,255 vehicles, as part of what the company calls a “low volume production strategy”.
IPO plans announced
In spite of this significant recall, Ferrari’s parent company Fiat Chrysler has announced that it plans to sell a 10% stake in the company.
This initial public offering which will be finalised by early next year will see Ferrari begin to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Currently, the company is estimated to be valued around $11 billion, and took in €621 million in revenues in the first quarter of 2015 of which €65 million was net income, a 20% increase on the same period last year.
