A visitor passes a Ford Escape Titanium at a car show last April.
Greg Baker | AFP | Getty Images
DETROIT – Ford Motor will recall 3 million older vehicles due to potential problems with their airbag inflators, costing the carmaker about $ 610 million.
The company confirmed the cost in a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission after the closing bell. Ford shares fell in the red during trading after hours, down about 2%. Shares closed 6.2% on Thursday at $ 11.53 a share – the largest closing in June 2018. Ford’s market cap is over $ 45 billion.
In the filing, Ford said the expense will be treated as a special item as part of its earnings in the fourth quarter of February 4th. This means that it will not affect Ford’s adjusted earnings before interest and taxes or adjusted earnings per share – items closely watched by Wall Street.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Tuesday rejected a 2017 petition from Ford, which sought to avoid the withdrawal of vehicles with potentially dangerous airbags, produced by car supplier Takata.
Affected vehicles range from model years 2006 to 2012. These include Ford Ranger (2007-2011), Fusion (2006-2012), Edge (2007-2010), Lincoln MKZ / Zephyr (2006-2012), MKX (2007-2010) ) and Mercury Milan vehicles (2006-2011).
The withdrawal will affect about 2.7 million vehicles in the United States and about 300,000 in Canada and other locations, the company said.
Takata airbag inflators have been a constant problem for carmakers for years. The defect can cause the airbag inflators to break, sending potentially lethal metal fragments flying into the vehicle. The problem was linked to the deaths of at least 27 people worldwide and 18 in the United States, according to Reuters. The problem involving the more than 67 million tires is the largest car recall in US history