Mitsubishi Reports Battery Problems, No Recalls Yet

Mitsubishi Motors reported battery problems on Wednesday, though they have no plans as of yet to issue a recall.

The battery in question was manufactured by the automaker’s venture with GS Yuaa Corp., which also makes lithium-ion batteries for Boein’s grounded 787 Dreamliner.

Mitsubishi announced the incidents on Wednesday, saying that a lithium-ion battery pack caught fire while it was charging during a test inspection at the plant in Okayama Prefecture in western Japan last week.

The battery pack is slated for use in the company’s MiEV model — the world’s first mass-produced electric car. Another charged lithium-ion battery in the company’s Outlander PHEV overheated last week in a separate incident. It melted the cell and part of the battery pack. The Outlander is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.

The Outlander incident happened as staff at the Mitsubishi plant tried moving the vehicle before shipment at one of its domestic sales companies. Mitsubishi assured that there were no injuries in either case.

The Mitsubishi batteries were manufactured by Lithium Energy Japan, which was established as a joint venture in 2007. Boeing released a statement about the incident, saying that the Dreamliner’s battery problems were in no way related to the Mitsubishi hybrid and electric car battery issue.

The Dreamliner jets have been grounded worldwide since January when a 787 owned by All Nippon Airlines was forced to make an emergency landing in Japan because of a battery that overheated. The Mitsubishi battery problems were the first such incidents since the joint venture started production.

The Japanese automaker added that it would be probing the cause of the battery glitches. It has not issued a recall but has not ruled out the possibility that one might be needed. Mitsubishi added that there was a change in specification at the production lines. The change could be tied to the defects.

[Image by Robert de Jong [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons]