Aston Martin says accelerator pedal recall to cost 1.5 million pounds

Aston Martin estimates that its expanded recall of accelerator pedals in 17,590 sports cars will result in a material added cost of 1.5 million pounds ($2.45 million).

The first recall for the problem was announced last May and was expanded in October and expanded again this week to include most of the sports cars built by Aston Martin since late 2007.

The British brand announced the expanded recall on Wednesday after discovering a Chinese sub-supplier was using counterfeit plastic material in the pedals, which may break, increasing the risk of a crash.

Aston Martin said in a statement this week that it determined the cost of the recall in late November 2013. The estimate does not include the potential cost of moving production of the pedal.

Aston Martin spokeswoman Sarah Calam said the automaker plans to shift production of the pedal arms from China to the UK "as soon as possible" in 2014.

The cost of the recall is of great interest because Aston Martin has struggled to fund the development of a range of new vehicles while rivals like Bentley, owned by Volkswagen Group, and Rolls-Royce, owned by BMW Group, have the ability to draw on the resources of their parent firms.

Aston Martin's owners include Italian private equity fund Investindustrial, Kuwait-based Adeem Investment and Prime Wagon. Daimler also has stake of less than 5 percent in the automaker.

Of the Aston Martin cars affected in the recall, 7,271 are in Europe and 5,001 in the United States, Calam said. The company sells cars in 41 countries.

The cars are being recalled from model years 2008 through 2014, according to documents from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Aston Martin found that Shenzhen Kexiang Mould Tool Co. Ltd., a Chinese subcontractor that molds the affected accelerator pedal arms, was using counterfeit plastic material supplied by Synthetic Plastic Raw Material Co. Ltd. of Dongguan, according to documents filed with the NHTSA.

Calam said there had been no reports of accidents or injuries related to the issue, adding that 22 failed parts had been reported.

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