Kia Motors said on Friday it was recalling a further 507,000 vehicles sold in the US due to a possible electronic fault which may prevent airbags from deploying in a crash.
This latest announcement brings the total number of vehicles the automaker has recalled in the US over this issue to close to 1.1m units.
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Last March, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration alerted Hyundai-Kia it was investigating the failure of airbags in some Kia and Hyundai vehicles to deploy in crashes in which four people were killed and another six were injured.
The NHTSA said it was aware of six serious frontal crashes involving Hyundai and Kia vehicles in which airbags failed to deploy, four of which involved 2011 model year Hyundai Sonata sedans and two Kia Forte models.
The Forte was Kia's best-selling model in the US last year, accounting for 117,596 of its 589,668 total sales.
The Sonata was Hyundai's third-best-selling model there, accounting for 131,803 of its 685,555 total sales.
Kia said the air bag control unit appeared susceptible to electrical 'overstress' and may short-circuit, preventing the air bags and seat belt pretensioners from deploying.
The company said it was working with the electronic module supplier ZF Friedrichshafen to resolve the issue.
The NHTSA said the fault looked similar to the root cause of a 2016 Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles recall of around 1.4m cars in the US.
