Panasonic’s computer battery recall now exceeds 300,000 units

Panasonic is recalling more than 300,000 rechargeable battery packs used for tablets and laptops in Japan and overseas due to concerns they may catch fire, the company says. The electronics giant is recalling more than 107,000 rechargeable battery packs for tablet PCs sold to corporate customers overseas, and almost 208,000 packs for its “Let’s Note” laptop computers due to safety concerns.

Panasonic has vastly expanded a recall of lithium-ion batteries at risk of overheating that affects ruggedized Toughbook tablets as well as notebook computers. The electronics maker added 98,520 CF-VZSU53AW battery packs for the H2 Toughbook tablet outside Japan to the recall, up from 8,530 announced in May. The Toughbook batteries were manufactured between June 2011 and September 2013. It also added 164,736 battery packs sold in Japan, mainly for Let’s Note notebook computers, to its May recall of 43,140 for a domestic total of 207,876. That brings the combined tally to 314,926 batteries. The company said four incidents of overheating involving batteries in Japan had occurred since the May recall, which mentioned six incidents.