Nokia issues recall of 46M Matsushita-made cell phone batteries

By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- Electronic News, 8/14/2007

Due to an overheating threat, a large-scale consumer recall was issued today for Nokia-branded BL-5C batteries manufactured by Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd. and used in a variety of Nokia's mobile phones.

Nokia said in a statement that it has identified that "in very rare cases" the affected batteries could potentially experience over heating initiated by a short circuit while charging. Finland-based Nokia said is working closely with relevant local authorities to investigate this situation.

The advisory applies to the 46 million batteries manufactured by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006. There have been approximately 100 incidents of over heating reported globally, all of which occurred while charging the battery. No serious injuries or property damage have been reported, Nokia said.

Nokia and Matsushita have offered to replace for free any BL-5C battery subject to this product advisory. Customers can check the serial number on their cell phone's battery at Nokia's Web site to see if it is subject to the recall.

Matsushita is not the only Japan-based battery maker that has made a manufacturing mishap related to batteries of late. For nearly a year now, Sony has been dealing with the fallout from a defective batch of lithium ion batteries for notebook computers that are similarly subject to overheating. The fire hazard posed by the defective batteries has triggered large-scale recalls over the past year at Dell Inc., Apple Inc., Lenovo Inc., Acer America Corp., Toshiba Corp., among other companies.