Automaker Chrysler Group LLC, majority-owned by Italian carmaker Fiat SpA (FIATY), said Tuesday that it disagrees with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA's request to recall 2.7 million Jeeps that the agency says are at risk of a fuel-tank fire in the event of a rear-impact collision.
Chrysler said the vehicles were not defective and their fuel systems do not pose an unreasonable risk to motor vehicle safety in rear-impact collisions.
The refusal by an automaker to comply with the NHTSA's request for recall is seen as rare. The NHTSA had sent a letter to Chrysler on Monday, asking the company to voluntarily recall Jeep Grand Cherokee of model years 1993 to 2004 and Jeep Liberty vehicles of model years 2002 to 2007.
The NHTSA opened an investigation into the vehicles in August 2010 at the request of the Center for Auto Safety, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group,. In its letter to Chrysler, the agency cited 32 rear-impact collisions that caused fatal fires, resulting in 44 deaths in Jeep Grand Cherokees and another seven deaths in the Jeep Liberty.
However, Chrysler said in a statement, "These Jeep vehicles have proven to be safe in operation and the Company's analysis shows the incidents at the focus of this request occur less than one time for every million years of vehicle operation. Additionally, these vehicles met or exceeded all applicable federal motor vehicle safety standards in place at the time they were built."
Chrysler added that there were several problems with the NHTSA's analysis, which according to the company, led to a mistaken conclusion to request a recall. The company noted that all these vehicles exceeded the requirements of NHTSA's FMVSS 301, the standard by which fuel system design is evaluated in the U.S.
Further, the automaker said that a review of almost 30 years of field data revealed an extremely low number of rear impact crashes with fire or fuel leak that occurred in a fleet of more than five million subject vehicles that have traveled more than 500 billion miles over 50 million registered vehicle years.
Chrysler added that the NHTSA used an incomplete and unrepresentative group of comparison vehicles, to determine its "peer group." According to the company, NHTSA's analysis excluded many models with aft-mounted fuel tanks that had a higher rate of the incidents than the targeted Jeep vehicles.
According to Chrysler, NHTSA's recall request contradicted its earlier findings. The company noted that in 2003, the NHTSA concluded it was not necessary to require that fuel tanks be relocated forward of the rear axle.
Chrysler said, "NHTSA seems to be holding Chrysler Group to a new standard for fuel tank integrity that does not exist now and did not exist when the Jeep vehicles were manufactured."
Meanwhile, the Center for Auto Safety said that Chrysler's refusal to recall the vehicles placed profits over safety. The advocacy group said it had repeatedly asked Fiat CEO John Elkann and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne to recall the vehicles, but received no response.
In mid-May, Chrysler recalled about 469,000 Jeeps worldwide, including 295,345 units in the U.S., due to a gearshift problem.
FIATY closed Tuesday's trading at $8.15, down $0.23 or 2.74 percent on a volume of 169,614 shares.
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