Sanyo, Lenovo May Share Cost of Battery Recall

Japanese electronics company Sanyo Electric and computer vendor Lenovo Group are discussing how to pay for the recall of more than 200,000 laptop PC batteries, and may end up sharing the burden.

“We are discussing the recall with Lenovo right now,” said Akihiko Oiwa, a spokesman for Sanyo. He said it’s too early to say how the companies might pay for the recall. A Reuters report said the two companies will share the cost, but Oiwa said that is not yet certain.

The companies have determined that the battery packs suffer from a faulty design, but they are not immediately dangerous unless they have been dropped or otherwise damaged, he said. The companies are recalling the batteries to ensure the safety of users, who could end up with overheating or smoking laptop batteries.

The recall is unrelated to the manufacturing problem that left metal shards inside battery cells made by Sony and caused some to overheat and catch fire. Sony’s troubles could lead to the recall of as many as 9.6 million batteries and cost the company an estimated 51.2 billion yen (US$433.5 million).

Oiwa declined to comment on how much the latest recall might cost Sanyo or Lenovo.

The recall affects battery packs sold by Lenovo as an option on certain versions of ThinkPad notebook PCs in the R series, T series and Z series model lines. The faulty packs have the part number FRU P/N 92P1131.

-Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service (Taipei Bureau)

Related Links:

• Lenovo Recalls 205,000 Notebook Batteries

• Sony Battery Recalls: Who’s Next?

Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage.