How will Japanese cars end after Takata airbag bankruptcy?

With Takata Airbag officially submitting a bankruptcy application to the Japanese court at the end of June, it means that Takata Airbag has entered the bankruptcy protection procedure. In fact, when the Takata Airbag incident was exposed, the industry already knew that Takata's insolvency and even bankruptcy was a matter of time. However, whether it is the hard-hit US market or the Japanese car companies that are the "accomplices" of Takata Airbag, most of them are more willing to make a big deal out of a small matter. We can see from the so-called penalty agreement reached between the US government and Takata Airbag at the beginning of the year that Takata only used one billion US dollars to make the US government lose the idea of ​​further additional penalties. It cannot be said that even if Takata Airbag goes bankrupt, it will bring a series of subsequent problems to the world's automobile market.

It is reported that the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China has also interviewed some car companies related to Takata airbags in the past few days. The purpose is to find out how to clean up the global mess after the bankruptcy of Takata airbags. Considering that this issue is really not simple, it involves not only the integrity and actions of the relevant companies, but also how to solve the further fermentation of Takata airbags according to national conditions, which can be said to be very important. It is not difficult to see from the active commitments of German Volkswagen, American General Motors and other companies that these companies have realized the importance of the Chinese market. As the main "accomplice", how to reassure consumers is indeed a more difficult bone to chew. This is because, among the 120 million airbags involved in the world, Honda alone accounts for more than 50 million, and Toyota and Nissan combined are comparable to Honda. In addition, the number of car companies such as Mazda and Subaru, it is conceivable how big the problem of Japanese cars with Takata airbags is. In order to solve the subsequent fermentation of Takata airbags, we can only start with Japanese cars.

Takata airbag bankruptcy is a mirror to measure the integrity of auto companies

The bankruptcy of Takata airbags was foreseeable. But the reason why it has been dragged on and not resolved is that, first, the investigation took too long; second, there are too many companies involved. In order to keep a distance from Takata airbags, some companies are unwilling to take the blame for Takata airbags. Among them, whether it is the recall of Takata airbag inflator problems, it requires companies to pay huge amounts of money; or to pay for the subsequent evolution of airbags, companies need to prepare a large amount of funds to deal with them. Although Takata airbags have publicly stated that they are also responsible for the incident, the number of vehicles involved is in the hundreds of millions, which makes it very difficult for the entire Japanese car industry to compensate.

In the face of such a big problem, the reason why we need to pay more attention to the integrity of Japanese cars is mainly because Japanese cars have a closer relationship with Takata; and the integrity of Japanese cars in the domestic market in recent years is really not commendable. Let alone, Toyota and Lexus have already had a great discount on their integrity in the Chinese market. Just for the problem of domestic production, there have been repeated drawer-pulling phenomena, and the problem has been pushed to China's manufacturing. Such credibility, if used on the issue of Takata airbags, will indeed make people more worried. Similarly, on the issue of Nissan, there have been a series of reductions in configuration and product shortages in China. If the problem is placed on the airbag level, how many moths the company can come up with is naturally unknown. As Honda Motor, it is a shareholder of Takata. At the same time, it has the largest use of Takata airbags. According to incomplete statistics, Honda alone occupies more than 50 million Takata airbags, which cannot but make Honda and I have more concerns in the Chinese market! Therefore, faced with the phenomenon of repeated problems with corporate integrity, more companies should come up with their own solutions, which is the key to preventing consumers from continuing to suffer.

Solving the problem of Takata airbags requires considering the actual situation of the domestic market

As for the impact of Takata airbags, it can be said that the United States has become the hardest hit area. From the more than 46 million problematic vehicles in the US market alone, it can be seen that only half of the models have been solved to date. However, as the Chinese market is larger than the US market, although the number of vehicles involved is not even a fraction of that in the United States, due to the invisible and intangible nature of airbags, coupled with the uneven integrity of car companies, it is natural that this kind of unfairness will occur to domestic consumers. Therefore, it is necessary to urge companies to speed up the pace of recalls in China; it is even more important to combine the solution to the problem with national conditions, which is more important than anything else.

If we say that solving the impact of Takata airbags may require companies to solve it through good faith and reinvestment of funds, then some companies will adopt this or that metaphysical approach. However, as managers, we need to take it seriously from the perspective of solving problems and preventing them from happening. This is the key to preventing companies from shifting problems or even using double standards. Perhaps, domestic testing standards and industry regulations are not as advanced and timely as those abroad, but we can first formulate the responsibility and punishment standards for the use of Takata airbags when problems arise. This is the key to truly preventing problems from occurring. Therefore, our industry regulations must be formulated with consumers at the center. This is the only way to keep Takata airbags away from Chinese consumers.

To be fair, the progress of domestic auto market in recent years is obvious, and the market has also achieved unprecedented development. This makes it even more necessary to protect the domestic auto market and consumers in all aspects, which is the most important thing. The further fermentation of the Takata airbag problem this time is precisely a major criterion for testing the integrity of auto companies, and it is also the key to testing the degree to which the domestic auto market keeps pace with the times. Therefore, if the follow-up problems of Takata airbags are not solved, everything will be in vain.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.