Volkswagen AG questioned whether it should be part of widening recalls linked to rupture-prone Takata Corp. air bags, saying the relevant safety devices on its vehicles were largely produced in a German factory that so far hasn't been cited for manufacturing problems.

Defect reports Takata filed with U.S. regulators on additional air bags "may be overbroad as applied to inflaters installed in Volkswagen vehicles," the German auto maker wrote in a letter to U.S. regulators earlier this week.

Volkswagen on Feb. 1 initially proposed conducting tests on the relevant air-bag inflaters, but regulators said a study alone without a recall wouldn't be permitted, according to another regulatory filing from the auto maker. Volkswagen decided to recall vehicles on Feb. 8, the filing shows.

Volkswagen's letter and other filings with regulators differed from other auto makers' documents related to Takata recalls. Other auto makers cited "an abundance of caution" in recalling the vehicles despite a lack of any known ruptures, injuries or deaths. Volkswagen's letter, addressed to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's acting associate enforcement administrator, and other documents were released late Friday as part of a series of updated recall filings with U.S. regulators.

Volkswagen has separately irked regulators in the U.S. over selling nearly 600,000 vehicles with software capable of duping emissions tests. Regulators earlier this year rejected Volkswagen's plan for recalling and fixing nearly 500,000 of those vehicles to bring them into compliance with environmental rules.

A Volkswagen spokeswoman declined to comment. A NHTSA spokesman declined to comment. The NHTSA spokesman earlier this year described Takata recalls as a "massive safety crisis" that would prompt regulators to take swift action in response to ruptures during tests or real-world driving even though investigators haven't yet determined a root cause for the problem.

Write to Mike Spector at mike.spector@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 12, 2016 18:05 ET (23:05 GMT)