TOKYO — Automakers around the world likely will be stuck with billions of dollars in recall losses now that airbag supplier Takata Corp. has filed for bankruptcy.
Takata's Japanese customers will feel the most pain. Honda, Toyota and Nissan combined have earmarked more than $10 billion to cover their share of the massive global recall of defective Takata airbag inflators that can explode with deadly force.
For the most part, the automakers have accounted for those mammoth expenses in their earnings. But now they say it is unlikely Takata will compensate them for the costs.
Honda, Takata's biggest customer and a major shareholder with a 1.2 percent stake in the supplier, had hoped to at least share the cost with Takata. But not anymore.
"We anticipated difficulty in claiming compensation," spokesman Kosuke Kachi said.
In all, 19 manufacturers in the U.S. have been embroiled in history's biggest automotive recall, a scandal linked to least 16 deaths and 180 injuries worldwide. The list includes General Motors, Volkswagen, Daimler, Land Rover and even Ferrari and Tesla.
The costs are likely to keep rising because the recalls are nowhere near finished.