German carmakers Volkswagen and Daimler are recalling 1.5 million vehicles in the United States due to potentially faulty airbags made by Japanese company Takata Corp, the focus of a long-running global safety crisis.

Key points: VW, Daimler recall 1.5 million cars over airbags

VW, Daimler recall 1.5 million cars over airbags Japanese company Takata make the airbags

Japanese company Takata make the airbags Recall comes after regulators highlighted faults

The move comes after US auto safety regulators said last month that Takata had declared 5.1 million US vehicles defective, revealing that far more air bags than previously thought were potentially unsafe.

Takata's inflators can explode with too much force and spray metal shrapnel into vehicle passenger compartments.

They are linked to at least 10 deaths worldwide and more than 100 US injuries.

Problems with Takata airbags were first reported in 2009.

So far, 14 automakers have recalled a total of about 24 million US vehicles involving about 28 million Takata air bag inflators.

Volkswagen said it would recall 680,000 vehicles in the US due to the potentially faulty airbags, following Daimler which said 840,000 US vehicles with Takata airbag inflators would be checked.

Volkswagen said the US recall affected VW models built between 2006 and 2014 without specifying further which models.

Daimler said it was recalling about 705,000 Mercedes-Benz cars and about 136,000 vans after being notified by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that certain Takata airbags were potentially defective.

Cars being recalled include the Mercedes-Benz SLK convertible, the C-Class and E-Class sedans, the M and GL-Class sports utility vehicles as well as the R-Class and SLS coupe made between 2005 and 2014.

Daimler is also recalling vans made between 2007 and 2014, including vehicles bearing the Dodge, Freightliner and Mercedes-Benz Sprinter brands.

Daimler said it was unaware of airbag failures in its vehicles, and that the numbers of vehicles involved in the recall could fall once further technical studies had been carried out by NHTSA.

Reuters