Due to problems with a glycol coolant, German carmaker BMW said it needed to recall a total of 1.6 million vehicles globally, making it one of the Munich-based company's largest safety recalls ever.

Back in August of this year, BMW issued a note saying that it was recalling 100,000 cars in South Korea on fears the vehicles may catch fire. Only a few days later, another 300,000 cars in Europe were added to the tally.

On Tuesday, BMW conceded that following further examination of engines with a similar technical setup, it would now have to inspect an additional million or so vehicles.

Drivers, keep calm!

The company hastened to say that there's no reason to believe that the cars added this week had been posing any significant risk to customers.

"Nonetheless, the BMW Group decided to further reduce even this minor risk by expanding the country-specific technical campaigns," it said in a statement.

The massive recall is caused by a malfunction involving the gas recirculation module (EGR). Under certain conditions, small amounts of the glycol coolant can escape and gather in the EGR module. The coolant can potentially mix with other substances there and become combustible.

BMW did not specify the exact models affected by the issue, but said the 1.6 million vehicles in question were all built between August 2010 and August 2017.

hg/tr (Reuters, dpa)