Hyundai Motor Company
Pretensioners, like airbags, rely on explosive bolts to operate during an accident, deploying to lock seatbelts during an impact instantly. Under normal circumstances, pretensioners don't usually produce shrapnel like a claymore mine and injure drivers. In the chronology of events published by the NHTSA, at least two people in the United States and one in Singapore were injured by metal fragments from the burst cylinders entering the car's cabin.
Hyundai notified the NHTSA that model year 2019-2022 Accents, model year 2021-2023 Elantras, and 2021-2022 Elantra hybrids were included in the recall notice. The company sought the services of outside engineering firm Exponent to "conduct metallurgical analyses on the connection between the micro gas generator and pretensioner used in the subject Elantra and Accent vehicles and identify potential areas of stress and fracture initiation sites during deployment." As part of its recall notice, Hyundai is implementing the solution proposed by Exponent, a cap that could "eliminate stress sites that could potentially increase the risk" of explosion.
Intriguingly, this isn't the first time Hyundai has had this problem. The current recall expands several previous recalls involving the same two vehicle models and others, such as an October recall that included Genesis, Elantra, and Venue model cars. Before, the recall had been expanded to include more Hyundai models as the NHTSA investigated the three previous incidents.
Hyundai's OTC shares slid 1.8% on Wednesday by 1 p.m., though this seemed to be a continuation of the stock's current trend rather than a reaction to the recall. Despite being only the latest of multiple related recalls, there seems to be much more going in Hyundai's favor as of late, such as the company's partnership with Apple
