Audi Cars in China Recalled Over Airbags From German Supplier

FAW-Volkswagen Automobile Ltd, a Chinese joint venture of Volkswagen AG, will recall 270,635 Audi cars in China due to an air bag software issue, China’s quality watchdog said.

A spokeswoman at Audi China said the airbags were from a German supplier, and that the recall has nothing to do with Takata Corp., the embattled Japanese company whose potentially defective airbags have led to the recall of millions of vehicles.

The Audi recall comes less than two weeks after Volkswagen said it would call back more than 580,000 cars in China to fix a possible suspension defect.

The latest recall involves 4,692 imported Audi A4 all-road cars and 265,943 China-made Audi A4L cars produced between May 25, 2012 and Oct. 22, 2014, China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement on its website.

Some of the cars to be recalled have software configuration problems in the airbag control systems, so in certain circumstances of collision, air bags cannot open, according to the statement.

(Reporting by Samuel Shen and Kazunori Takada; Editing by Miral Fahmy)