Stellantis Urgently Seeks Removal of These Dangerous Models from European Roads | Carscoops

      Another death linked to a Takata airbag has led Stellantis executives to order nearly 450,000 hazardous vehicles to be parked indefinitely.

      12 hours ago

      by Chris Chilton

      Stellantis is requesting that 441,000 cars be removed from roads following a fatal incident in France.

      This directive follows the death of a woman whose faulty Takata airbag exploded in her C3 vehicle.

      The stop-drive recall affects older Citroën C3 and DS3 models that still have their original airbags.

      More than 16 years after the first documented death linked to a failed Takata airbag, these defective components continue to claim lives. In light of the most recent fatality, Stellantis is insisting that thousands of vehicles be taken off the roads immediately to avert additional tragedies.

      A stop-drive recall initiative concerning 441,000 Citroën C3 and DS3 vehicles across Europe has been initiated to eliminate the dangers posed by cars that have yet to have their airbags replaced.

      Related: Feds Investigate Nissan After Airbag Module Explodes Into Driver

      This order impacts models manufactured between 2014 and 2019, which were previously exempt from an earlier stop-drive order that applied only to vehicles made between 2008 and 2013. At that time, Stellantis did not consider newer vehicles to pose a significant risk and only deemed a standard recall response necessary.

      The Incident That Triggered the Recall

      This assumption was overturned after a driver in France lost her life when the defective Takata airbag in her 2014 Citroën C3 hatchback exploded, sending metal shards into her face. The incident occurred on June 11 in Reims, resulting in the death of the 37-year-old woman and injuring her teenage passenger when their car struck a motorway barrier, according to French news reports.

      Following the opening of a manslaughter investigation by city prosecutors and its transfer to a Paris team overseeing Takata inquiries, France’s Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot mandated that all at-risk C3 and DS3 models be taken off the road. Stellantis has now mirrored this request with a Europe-wide stop-drive recall.

      Stellantis Criticized for Delayed Response

      While Stellantis has already upgraded hundreds of thousands of airbags, Tabarot has labeled Stellantis' management of the Takata situation as “unacceptable and scandalous,” asserting it has “not matched the scale of the risk,” according to remarks shared by RFI.

      The company has also faced criticism in France regarding its confusing safety strategy, which initially only issued stop-drive orders for models from 2008-2013 in the southern regions, due to the airbags being more susceptible to failure in hot and humid conditions—17 fatalities have occurred in France’s overseas territories since 2016. This order was expanded to the rest of France in February 2025.

      A Broader Takata Legacy

      Stellantis isn't the only manufacturer dealing with the repercussions of Takata's defective airbags. Several other brands, including BMW, Honda, Toyota, and VW, also used the faulty components. The Takata scandal eventually led to the company's bankruptcy in 2017, but the consequences are still ongoing, with risks persisting in millions of vehicles around the globe.