Hitachi to Replace Sony-Made Notebook Batteries

by Anton Shilov
10/09/2006 | 11:37 PM

Hitachi Corp., a leading maker of consumer electronics which also produces mobile computers exclusively for Japanese market, has announced recall of lithium-ion accumulators that uses cells made by Sony. The move is just another announcement regards the already famous power cells that can catch fire or explode under certain circumstances.

The recall only affects 16 000 thousand laptops sold in Japan, particularly, the Hitachi Flora 210W and Flora Se210 laptops, according to media reports. Hitachi reportedly claims that none of its laptops caught fire or overheated, based on customers’ response, nevertheless, Hitachi is already sixth company to announce battery replacement plan, which once again indicates that the issue is industry-wide.

To date, the total amount of Sony-made rechargeable lithium-ion batteries to be recalled is close to 7.6 million of units.

Back in August Apple and Dell have recalled combined 5.9 million – 1.8 and 4.1 million respectively – batteries for notebooks after several incidents, in which batteries produced by Sony flamed and/or exploded. In mid-September Toshiba said to replace 340 thousand of laptop batteries also made by Sony, as those could run out of power unexpectedly. Additionally, Panasonic said it would recall batteries for 6 thousand of its laptop batteries that contained Sony-made cells due to fire hazard. Finally, Toshiba said it would recall 838 thousand batteries for its notebooks, Lenovo announced plans to replace 526 thousand rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that include cells supplied by Sony and Dell said would recall 100 thousand more batteries, increasing its total numbers of accumulators to be recalled to 4.2 million. In addition, Fujitsu said it would replace 287 thousand of batteries for its notebooks.

Back in August a spokesman for Sony indicated that Sony Electronics was “speaking regularly with its battery customers” and expressed opinion that the recalls would stop with Apple and Dell, implying that HP and Lenovo, another notebook suppliers who used batteries by Sony, will not recall their products. Sony itself said it would not replace batteries for its own Vaio notebooks.