It appears as though some of the automotive manufacturers affected by the Takata airbag recalls have decided to utilize airbag parts manufacturers other than Takata to address the issue. For at least one make, it has decided to cease the use of Takata parts altogether.

That’s according to witness testimonies at Tuesday’s hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, where the committee hearing discussed the issue of recalls with witness testimonies from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation as well as from representatives from TK Holdings (Takata), Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Honda North America.

Sen. Bill Nelson, during his address to the committee, offered the following statement in regards to his staff’s months-long investigation of Takata.

“For years, it’s obvious that Takata did not put safety first,” Nelson said. “It appears that Takata knew, or should have known, as early as 2001 — that’s 14 years ago — that there were serious safety and quality lapses in its airbag production process. And you’d think that they would have stepped up their safety efforts at these plants after discovering those issues. No. And by the way, there are eight people dead,” Nelson said

“Instead, internal emails suggest they actually suspended global safety audits from ‘09 to ‘11 for cost-cutting reasons. And now the same company responsible for this disaster is the one making nearly all of the replacement airbags for most of the recalled vehicles. That doesn’t sit well with many Americans. And I think Takata has some serious explaining to do.”

Scott Kunselman, the senior vice president and head of vehicle safety and regulatory compliance at FCA US LLC, said that Fiat-Chrysler no longer plans to use Takata’s parts to fix the affected airbags.

“Today, I am pleased to share with the Committee that as of June 8, 2015, FCA is replacing all driver-side inflators involved in the recall with an alternate and permanent design provided by TRW,” Kunselman said. “Customers who receive the TRW inflator replacement will require no further action on their vehicles.”

Kunselman followed up by saying that the surplus inventory of Takata parts due to switching suppliers will be quarantined and returned from its dealers to Takata. FCA will also replace all previously replaced Takata airbag parts with new ones supplied by TRW.

“All of the approximately 50,000 customers who previously received a Takata inflator will be notified to return for the TRW update, as well,” Kunselman said.

Kunselman also mentioned that FCA has been working with Takata to develop improved versions of the passenger inflator designs, with an improved igniter material as well as a desiccant to address the issue of moisture exposure to the airbag propellants in hot and humid climates.

Rick Schostek, the executive vice president of Honda North America, also spoke at the hearing. In addition to mailing affected customers, Schostek says Honda has improved other measures to help the recall situation, including the following:

• Enhanced general recall website and created microsite dedicated to keeping customers informed and to make it easy for them to check vehicles for open recalls.
• Customer Relations department available to receive calls seven days a week.
• Bi-lingual regional advertising campaign (via radio and newspaper) initiated in March to urge customers to repair vehicles in  nine states and two U.S. territories with most consistently high temperatures and absolute humidity.
• Targeted messages via social media.

Schostek said the following regarding Honda’s sources of parts for the airbag repairs.

“To accelerate the safety actions and increase the supply of airbag inflators, Honda proactively began searching for alternative supply solutions to more quickly facilities repairs of our older model vehicles,” Schostek said. “This effort led to agreements with Daicel, Autoliv and TRW Automotive to provide us with replacement parts in addition to Takata."

Schostek says that in recent weeks Honda’s dealers are averaging more than 50,000 repairs per week in light of the improvements and increased sources of parts.

“We have asked our dealers to expand service hours and to never turn away a customer with an affected vehicle,” Schostek said. “And we require dealers to check the VIN for every vehicle that comes into their dealership. To support this policy, in February we initiated a new system that alerts dealers whenever their staff fails to check the VIN of a car brought in for service to see if it has an open recall.”

Honda also holds a firm policy of offering a loaner vehicle or rental car free of charge to customers with affected vehicles that are being repaired or are waiting for a replacement part.

“Further, to prevent the possibility that any Takata airbag inflators under recall can be used as a replacement part, we’ve been searching salvage yards nationwide to find and secure recalled inflators,” Schostek said. “We have already identified many thousands of inflators from salvage yards that now never will be installed in another vehicle.”

Schostek continues to pursue other avenues, as well, including the pursuit of the harder-to-find older vehicles that may be affected.

“In some markets, we have enlisted a special investigative firm as part of our effort to contact hard-to-reach owners of older model vehicles affected by Takata airbag inflator recalls,” he said.

“For many reasons, it is particularly difficult to locate the owners of older vehicles and get the vehicles repaired,” he continued. “When I testified last November, I suggested that we find a way to tie the annual state vehicle registration process to a requirement that safety defects be addressed before completion of vehicle registration. 

For more information about the recent Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing, view the video and other notes here.