Rapidly increasing recalls: Do cars have a quality problem?

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It goes on and on: Car manufacturers are calling vehicles into the workshops in large numbers due to defects. Hundreds of thousands of BMWs are currently being recalled worldwide because a problem with the starter could, in the worst case, cause a vehicle fire. In Germany alone, around 136,500 cars of various models built between 2015 and 2021 are affected.

The Czech Volkswagen brand Skoda is currently recalling around 13,500 vehicles in which airbags could trigger for no reason. In recent years, millions of cars worldwide have already been affected by recalls involving airbags from the same supplier. This possible airbag defect is one of the largest recalls in automotive history.

Significantly more recalls

"Last year, 2.8 million vehicles – Mainly cars – were ordered back to the workshops," explains a spokesperson for the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) in Flensburg. That was 48 per cent more than in 2023. There is no specific reason for the rapid increase in recalls, it is more a combination of individual causes.

"If a model with a high level of distribution has a defect, then the number of vehicles to be recalled is correspondingly higher." If a high-volume manufacturer has problems with a component, for example, many more vehicles are affected than in the same case with cars from a niche manufacturer. For these reasons, strong fluctuations from one year to the next are easily possible. Over the past five years, the average number of recalls has been three million vehicles.

Their manufacturers are obliged to inform the KBA as soon as there are indications of safety-relevant defects. If the authority determines that the defects pose a risk or that the vehicle or vehicle parts do not comply with the applicable regulations, it requests that the manufacturers take remedial action. This is usually implemented by means of a recall and repair. For this purpose, the vehicle manufacturers receive the owner addresses from the KBA's central vehicle register, which monitors ordered recalls.

Vehicle can be immobilised

If an owner fails to present their vehicle at the workshop despite several reminders, it will be taken out of circulation. This happened around 155,000 times last year. In addition to the ordered recalls, there are voluntary recalls by the manufacturers, which occur more frequently than those ordered by the KBA. "It is very important to the manufacturers that defects are rectified," says the KBA spokesperson. This is mainly due to product liability, according to which manufacturers must pay for damage caused by defects.

For this reason, the multi-brand group Stellantis is currently ordering around 141,700 vehicle owners across Germany, including Peugeot, Opel and Fiat, to visit the workshops. The reason: problems with the camshaft can lead to engine damage in certain engine types. Manufacturers carry out voluntary recalls such as this one on their initiative, without being monitored by the KBA.

Around 2.8 million cars were recalled throughout Germany last year. Do cars have too many quality defects? Vehicles have become very complex due to the technical upheaval and increasing safety requirements, says Florian Hördegen, Head of Vehicle Technology at ADAC. "A lot of new technology has been integrated in recent years, which can be a risk factor for faulty components or functions." In addition, many manufacturers have had to economise. This can also be a cause of faults and, in the worst case, recalls.

Innovation as a risk factor

According to Hördegen, more and especially new technology is at least a risk factor for recalls. "However, it is to be expected that manufacturers will learn from their mistakes because recalls mean expense and financial losses for them." The horrendous costs for the millions of airbag recalls have driven the Japanese company Takata into insolvency, for example, because the car manufacturers have taken recourse against the supplier.

Recalls are intended to protect the affected customers from the consequences of faulty products. However, there is no legal obligation to pay the repair costs or for a hire car during the downtime. This only exists within the statutory liability period for material defects or a manufacturer's warranty. "However, in order not to jeopardise the success of recall campaigns and thus their image, vehicle manufacturers usually voluntarily cover the repair costs, even after deadlines have expired," says Hördegen.

Nowadays, vehicles no longer have to be taken to garages for recalls because software updates can be installed in cars wirelessly via the internet to rectify faults. "However, this must not lead to unfinished vehicles being delivered that only work in all respects later," says Hördegen. The ADAC warns that manufacturers could use this approach to evade an official recall by secretly fixing a safety-relevant problem with an update without having reported it to the Federal Motor Transport Authority.

E-cars disproportionately affected

Recalls are taking place across the entire global manufacturer landscape. Within Europe, there is one manufacturer that is now number one in terms of the number of vehicle recalls for the sixth time in a row in 2024: Mercedes-Benz. Last year, the company recalled 22 models in 24 recalls. That used to be more, but the numbers are falling from year to year.

Meanwhile, recalls of BEVs are currently significantly higher than those of combustion engines. According to a study by Uscale, another Stuttgart-based market research company specialising in electromobility, almost one in five electric cars had to be recalled in 2023. For combustion engines, it was only 5 per cent. The recall rate for electric cars was therefore four times higher. Over the past three years, however, the number of recalls for electric cars has fallen continuously: from 23 per cent in 2022 to 14 per cent in 2024.

There is still a lot of room for optimising the quality of BEVs. "Because the basic technical concept of the electric drive is much simpler than that of the combustion engine, I suspect that the learning effects will be greater," says Uscale Managing Director Axel Sprenger. He therefore assumes that the number of recalls of electric cars will continue to fall.

(mho)