The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has fined Takata Corp. as much as $200 million—the largest amount ever imposed by the agency—for failing to disclose a defect that caused its air bags to rupture.
The fines, announced on Tuesday, are the latest in a series of increasingly severe penalties that NHTSA has imposed on automobile companies over safety defects. Fines this year have included $105 million against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and $70 million against Honda. In the latest action, NHTSA also took the unprecedented step of pushing Takata Corp. to speed up its record recalls, now totaling 19 million vehicles in the United States.
