Nissan Recalls 605,000 Vehicles for Steering, Battery Defects

Nissan Motor Co., Japan’s third-largest carmaker, is recalling about 605,000 vehicles worldwide for flaws in steering-column shafts and batteries, Bloomberg reported.

The recalls include about 303,000 Frontier pickup trucks, 283,000 Xterra sport-utility vehicles and 18,500 Sentra cars, primarily in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, the Yokohama-based company said in a statement.

No accidents or injuries have been reported in connection with the defects, Nissan said in the statement. The recalls cover certain vehicles manufactured from 2001 to 2010. About 85 percent of the vehicles were sold in the United States, the carmaker said.

Nissan fell 0.8 percent to 785 yen as of 9:42 a.m. in Tokyo trading, while the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 0.2 percent.

The steering-column flaw causes corrosion that can limit the movement of the lower joint and lead to cracking of the steering shaft, the company said. The battery defect, affecting Sentra cars, can lead to difficulty starting the vehicle or stalling at low speeds, Nissan said.