Vehicles Affected by Safety Recalls (Monthly)

## What this measures

The number of vehicles manufacturers estimate may be affected by the vehicle safety recall campaigns NHTSA received in each month.

## Why it matters

Units scale the cost of a month’s recalls to the industry: one campaign covering a best-selling model can reach millions of vehicles.

## How to read it

Higher means more vehicles recalled. A single large campaign can set the month; read it with the campaign count.

## What it does not say

A campaign is dated by when NHTSA received the manufacturer’s defect report, not when owners were told or the repair was ready. Units are those the manufacturer estimates may be affected, not vehicles found defective. One defect can produce several campaigns (one per manufacturer or report).

## How it's built

Sum over each vehicle campaign of its potentially affected units (the campaign total, repeated on every model row of the file, read once). Month of report receipt. History from January 2010.

## Source

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, recalls data (static.nhtsa.gov/odi/ffdd/rcl/FLAT_RCL_POST_2010.zip, layout RCL.txt), refreshed daily by NHTSA; U.S. government work. Refreshed daily by /api/cron/risk-events-sync?source=nhtsa.