Shanghai GM recalls 1.5m vehicles over safety risks

Shanghai General Motors is to pull back nearly 1.5 million vehicles in one of the largest vehicle recalls in China this year, the national quality watchdog said yesterday. A faulty fuel pump bracket may crack and pose a safety risk, the company said, adding that the problem lay in the supplier’s manufacturing process. Up to 1.2 million Buick Excelle made between January 17, 2006 and December 2, 2011 and 243,297 Chevrolet Sail made between April 9, 2009 and October 8, 2011 are affected by the recall, due to start on Monday, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said. The Chevrolet Sail is exported to emerging markets, a Shanghai-based GM official told Reuters. The fuel pump bracket may crack after a long period of use, resulting in fuel leakage in extreme cases, Shanghai General Motors, a joint venture between the US carmaking giant and its Chinese partner SAIC, said. Updated information is available from the regulator’s website (www.aqsip.gov.cn) and the Buick hotline 800-820-2020, the Chevrolet hotline 800-820-1912 and the regulator’s hotline 010-59799616. The two models involved are among General Motors’s best-sellers in China. The US company’s joint ventures surpassed 3 million units in annual sales for the first time earlier this month. Yale Zhang, head of Shanghai-based consulting firm Automotive Foresight, said the cause of the recall didn’t appear too serious, according to Reuters. “GM has warned that the affected component might crack after long use and lead to fuel leakage, but in real life it doesn’t appear to have happened,” Zhang was quoted as saying. “There’re so many recalls these days, and some automakers call back products proactively more as a precaution. In this case, the recall shouldn’t affect GM’s reputation in China that much.” US carmakers in China have generally outpaced growth in the overall market, boosted by their popular product line-ups and partly as Japanese rivals suffered as a spin-off of a territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo. In another statement on its official website, the state quality watchdog said Ford Motor Co’s joint venture with Chongqing Changan Automobile Co Ltd will recall 80,857 of its Kuga cars over a steering part from February 21. The component might break apart when the car is involved in a collision of “considerable intensity,” posing safety dangers, the statement said. The cars were made between September 21, 2012 and November 13 this year. Buyers can contact Chang’an Ford’s service hotline 400-887-7766 or 800-810-8168, or the quality regulator’s hotline. Earlier this year, a massive recall of Chevrolet Tavera multi-purpose vehicles in India led to several key executives being sacked for violation of company policies. Vehicle recalls came into spotlight in China this year after the scandal of Volkswagen gearbox defects were exposed by China Central Television in March. Shortly after that, Volkswagen announced a recall of 384,181 locally produced and imported vehicles that were fitted with its DSG gearbox, which could cause unintended speed loss and acceleration. Last month, it initiated another recall involving 640,309 cars in China as part of its global recall of 1.68 million units. It said the mineral oil used in the transmission could cause electronics to malfunction and lead to overheating and security problems. As of Thursday, up to 3.76 million cars have been pulled back this year in China, up 17.37 percent from last year, the quality watchdog said yesterday.