Honda, reeling from recalls, hands reins to insider - Automotive News
TOKYO (Bloomberg) -- Honda Motor Co. is turning to an insider who’s spent his entire career at the company to navigate out of a global auto safety crisis, after seven people died in its cars. Takahiro Hachigo this week becomes the eighth president of one of Japan’s most renowned companies. By replacing Takanobu Ito, whose tenure was plagued by recalls and rupturing Takata Corp. airbags, he upholds a 41-year custom of Honda presidents hand-picking their successors from within. I hope Honda won’t fall into the same rut,” said Kentaro Hayashi, a Tachibana Securities Co. analyst in Tokyo, who’s recommended selling Honda shares for more than a year. Honda has so far relied on incremental steps, such as delaying new models and doing post-production checks to improve quality, rather than more radical changes such as severing ties with Takata. Defective Takata airbags that can deploy with too much force and spray metal at motorists have led Honda to recall about 20 million vehicles, by far the most among 11 affected carmakers. Honda said Friday it will set aside an additional $363 million to cover an expansion of the recalls and confirmed that a seventh death has been linked to a Takata airbag in one of its. Source: www.autonews.com
