The England-based automaker Aston Martin recalled over 17,000 cars on Wednesday due to counterfeited plastic materials.
According to documents filed with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the English manufacturer of luxury sports cars discovered that the accelerator pedal arms installed in the recalled cars were made out of counterfeit DuPont plastic materials.
The automaker announced a recall of a total of 17,590 sports cars that include all left-hand drive models built since November 2007 and all right-hand drive models built since May 2012 except for the Vanquish model.
Out of 17,590 sports cars being recalled, 5,001 are in the United States while 7,271 are in Europe.
The cars were being recalled because the accelerator pedal arms made out of fake plastic materials can easily break, thus increasing the risk of a car crash. It can also lead to the inactivation of the car's engine prohibiting the driver to maintain or increase speed.
Though there were no reports of accidents or injuries related to the issue yet, there have already been 22 reported cases of malfunctioning parts, said Aston Martin spokesperson Sarah Calam to Chicago Tribune.
She added that her company is contemplating on shifting the manufacture of the accelerator pedal arms to United Kingdom "as soon as possible."
However, since the production is still in China, Aston Martin and DuPont were prompted to send their respective representatives to personally oversee the production of all pedal arms. They were also expected to make sure that each bag of DuPont plastic material is authentic.
The accelerator pedal arms were assembled by the Precision Varionic International Ltd. but parts used where created and sub-supplied by Shenzhen Kexiang Mould Tool Co. Ltd. The parts of the accelerator pedal arms, on the other hand, were reportedly molded using counterfeited DuPont plastic materials supplied by the Synthetic Plastic Raw Material Co. Ltd. of Dongguan.
