Troubled Japanese electronics maker Sanyo Electric Co. said it would shoulder with China's Lenovo Group the cost of recalling 205,000 Sanyo-made laptop battery packs that can overheat.

The ThinkPad battery recall, which caused Sanyo shares to slip as much as 4.2 percent, comes during an investigation of loss-making Sanyo by Japan's securities watchdog the Securities Exchange and Surveillance Commission. The lithium-ion extended-life battery packs, jointly designed by Lenovo and Sanyo and tested by Lenovo, can overheat and spark if dropped hard on to the ground, the two companies said.

Lenovo said it has received five reports of accidents from overheated batteries damaging laptops, with one customer reporting minor eye irritation from the smoke and sparks.

The recall would be an additional blow to Sanyo, which earlier this week said it is considering restating its parent earnings for the four years to March 2004, following a report that it may have failed to account for more than $1 billion in losses, mainly at subsidiaries.

Both Sanyo and Lenovo said this time the defect is in the design of the battery packs, which were jointly designed by the two companies and tested for impact-resistance by Lenovo, and not in the internal battery cell, designed by Sanyo alone.

Sony had to foot the whole recall cost, because the overheating was caused mainly by defects in the battery cell.

Source:佚名