Nokia warns on overheating batteries: Very few likely affected, but phone maker chooses safe over sorry

Nokia Corp. advised that its self-branded BL-5C battery, found in more than 50 handsets, is subject to overheating and popping out of the handset during recharging. The company has offered to replace the offending batteries upon request, an offer that Nokia acknowledged could potentially encompass 46 million batteries.
The product advisory is not a recall, nor have serious injuries been reported in 100 documented overheating incidents, out of a suspect batch of 46 million batteries delivered by supplier Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd. of Japan between December 2005 and November 2006, according to Nokia.
The handset vendor said that a short circuit in some batteries has apparently caused the power units to overheat and expand, popping the battery cover off-and popping the battery out of-some mobile handsets.
The general topic of defective batteries in mobile handsets or consumer electronics, however, is a loaded one because of past lithium-ion battery incidents in which fires or explosions of some sort occurred, driving product recalls and resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in costs to the battery vendor.
The number of batteries potentially involved in Nokia’s voluntary replacement program-46 million-dwarfs that of any recent, actual recalls. One year ago, Sony Corp. recalled 4 million laptop batteries based on lithium-ion technology used in Dell Inc. laptops. The batteries, Sony said, could overheat and, in some cases, burst into flames. The recall was estimated to cost Sony Corp. as much as $200 million and it put an unquantifiable dent in the reputation of the consumer electronics giant.
Fully one dozen lithium-ion battery recalls have taken place in the past year, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal. Two have involved cell phones, the rest affected laptops. The Nokia case is the first documented case involving Matsushita as the battery vendor.
Although those past incidents bore little if any relationship to Nokia’s announcement last week, the mere notion of defective batteries apparently drove media speculation about the possible impacts to Nokia’s brand value and financial liabilities in the matter.
The Finnish vendor said that the advisory was based on 100 incidents from the suspect batch of 46 million units, a fraction of more than 300 million such units it received from several vendors.
By the end of last week, a Nokia spokeswoman said the company had little news to report.
“We do expect this case to incur direct cost to Nokia,” said spokeswoman Laurie Armstrong. “We are not able to provide any estimates for financial impact at this time, nor have we given any per battery cost estimates.”
“Of course, Matsushita also bears some responsibility, which is expected to lessen the impact on Nokia,” Armstrong continued. “We’re in discussion with them on how we’ll work through that. Since this was very much a voluntary move on Nokia’s part, we hope that our advisory demonstrates our commitment to acting responsibly and in the best interests of our customers and consumers who use our products.”
In its product advisory on its Web site, Nokia said: “Nokia has identified that in very rare cases the affected batteries could potentially experience over-heating initiated by a short circuit while charging, causing the battery to dislodge.”
“This is an over-heating issue, not a fire or explosion issue,” said Keith Nowak, a Nokia spokesman. “If you’re concerned, take a look and if you have a suspect battery, we’ll send you another one.”
Nowak said that consumers should open their Nokia handset and if the battery model is BL-5C, take out the battery and check its 26-digit serial number. At Nokia.com/batteryreplacement, a consumer can punch in the 26-digit number and learn whether it comes from the suspect batch of 46 million units. If so, the consumer can type in their name and address and Nokia will send a replacement free of charge.
The company provided a list of 52 handsets that use the BL-5C, but said it could not generalize about the geographic distribution of the offending batteries.