Sony laptop batteries recall widens

The massive global recall of batteries made by Sony Corp. said it is recalling 287,000 laptop batteries that are at risk of overheating or catching fire. The company said it reviewed its products with Sony batteries and found that the designs were not prone to the overheating issues other companies seem to face. Dell's recall, announced in August, came after six instances of overheating or fire involving systems with Sony-made batteries. The investigation into the matter is continuing, and Clancy said Sony expects to issue an announcement within a few days to nail down the scope of the problem and the number of batteries affected. Other factors, however, could also be causing batteries to overheat or smoke, said Vallese at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. As a result, Vallese said this battery recall, the largest one in electronics, differs from others where a specific defect is typically the culprit. Sony has not disclosed how much the additional recalls will cost the company but did estimate earlier that the battery recalls by Dell and Apple alone would cost it at least $170 million.