Ford expands recall of vehicles with defective Takata airbags

(Reuters) - Ford Motor Co said it would recall about 1.9 million vehicles fitted with defective airbag inflators made by Japan's Takata Corp, in North America.

The company is among several automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp, General Motors Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, that have announced recall of vehicles with faulty Takata airbags.

Takata inflators can explode with excessive force and spray metal shrapnel into vehicle passenger compartments. They are suspected in 13 deaths worldwide and more than 100 injuries.

Ford said on Wednesday that the affected vehicles include 2007-2010 Edge, 2006-2011 Fusion, 2005-2011 Mustang, 2007-2011 Ranger, 2007-2010 Lincoln MKX and 2006-2011 Lincoln MKZ, Zephyr and Mercury Milan. (http://ford.to/1TXwcjf)

Of the affected vehicles, 1,304 are in Canada and one is in Mexico, with the rest being in the United States.

The U.S. automaker said it was not aware of any injuries associated with these passenger-side frontal airbag inflators in any Ford vehicles related to this recall.

Toyota said earlier in the day that it was recalling a total of about 490,000 vehicles in Japan, China, Europe and other regions over the Takata airbag inflators.

Eight automakers said on Friday they were recalling more than 12 million U.S. vehicles for the airbag inflators made by the Japanese company.

(Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey)