Possible cover-up over smoking Nokia batteries

Link: Matsushita Knew About Nokia Battery Overheating 8 Months Ago – Sources

Kyodo World Service (via Cellular-News) are reporting that Matsushita – the battery manufacturer at the centre of the recent Nokia recall of their BL-5C battery (rather bad artists impression pictured) – knew about the possibility that their batteries would overheat over eight months ago.

According to the report, Nokia reported the problem to the Japanese company last December, but the recall itself did not happen until Tuesday. In their defence, Matsushita say that “the announcement followed its efforts to estimate the cause of the defect”.

The recall, affecting about 46 million batteries worldwide, was caused by a manufacturing error between December 2005 and 2006, with about 100 overheating cases reported around the world so far – including one where a battery emitted smoke whilst being charged.