According to the study, the number of recalls related to electronic and electrical systems have risen nearly 30 percent per year since 2013, compared with 5 percent annual increases from 2007 to 2013. This signals a growing interest in more sophisticated infotainment and safety systems, the study says.
Recalls related to system integration can affect greater numbers of vehicles than can manufacturing problems, which are often restricted to one plant or region and a limited time frame, the study says.
"Because most automotive OEMs have adopted global platforms, there is now far less local variation in vehicle content," the study says. "As the number of vehicles using similar systems increases, so do the number of issues detected since the larger production volumes attract closer observation. As a result, recall notices are increasingly likely to involve not thousands but millions of vehicles."