Citroen

PARIS — French carmaker Citroen on Tuesday told owners of its C3 and DS3 models in Europe equipped with potentially faulty Takata airbags to immediately cease driving the vehicles, after a woman was killed in France this month.

It is the latest move in a recall scandal dating from 2014, after investigators determined the airbags had caused several deaths because they exploded when deployed in an accident.

The French government earlier this month urged Citroen, part of the Stellantis group, to issue an immediate immobilisation order to owners of the impacted models after a 37-year-old woman was killed when her car’s airbag malfunctioned during an accident, projecting parts into her.

It was the 13th death linked to the defective airbags in dozens of accidents in France, according to prosecutors.

Until now Citroen had only asked drivers to make appointments to have the airbags replaced, a process carried out in stages since early 2024, but did not tell them to stop driving the vehicles.

“Given the circumstances, we have decided to issue a ‘stop drive’ to accelerate their repair,” Citroen’s CEO Xavier Chardon told AFP.

The order affects around 441,000 C3 and DS3 vehicles in Europe, on top of the hundreds of thousands already recalled by Citroen since early last year.

Other major manufacturers including Volkswagen, Nissan, BMW and Toyota have recalled millions of vehicles containing the airbags. — AFP