Toyota has announced another large-scale recall - about 6.4 million cars worldwide, writes WSJ. The recall affected 27 models, including the Corolla, Yaris and RAV4. In total, global automakers BMW, Fiat-Chrysler, Ford, General Motors and Volkswagen have recalled about 15 million cars for various reasons. Industry experts say that recalls are increasing because automakers have faced fines from regulators and criminal prosecution of executives of a number of companies, the publication reports. In March, Toyota agreed to pay the United States a fine of $1.2 billion to settle a criminal investigation. The company was accused of deliberately concealing car defects that could have caused a series of fatal accidents.

Globalization of production has led to increased use of common parts across different models from different manufacturers.

South Korean automakers recalled cars in the U.S. in January after seat fabric used in some American-made vehicles was found to be flammable. Volkswagen, GM and SAIC Motor Co. announced the recalls after consumer complaints and subsequent directives from Chinese regulators. Japan's regulator filed criminal charges against Mitsubishi Motors executives after the company admitted hiding defects for years. Last week, GM said it faces more than a dozen lawsuits over crashes caused by faulty switches in its vehicles. The company is threatening criminal charges and is urging customers to leave about 2.3 million vehicles in parking lots.

The increase in recalls between 2010 and 2013 may be related to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's efforts to draw attention to Toyota's massive recalls in 2009 and 2010, according to research by consulting firm Stout Risius Ross Inc. Car companies are trying to act before the situation becomes critical, said Jessica Caldwell, an analyst at Edmunds.com (quoted by WSJ).

EURussia Partner Managing Partner Ivan Bonchev says that the requirements for cars are the same for all countries and the recalls affected Russia as well. 99% of Ford cars sold in Russia are produced locally, we are not subject to global recalls with rare exceptions, a company representative explained to Vedomosti. Since the beginning of 2014, Toyota has recalled 18,454 cars in Russia, a company representative said. These are Land Cruiser Prado and Toyota Hiace, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Verso, Toyota Prius, Toyota Yaris, a representative of the Russian Toyota office reported. Representatives of Renault, VW, Fiat, Nissan, Hyundai , GM did not respond to the request.

15 million defective cars