Legal

When Batteries Might Fail: A Year in Review

2025 RECALLS

Over the past year, battery recalls have been driven by a broad range of safety issues, most commonly related to overheating, ignition, and fire hazards. Many products were found to overheat during charging or normal use, with some incidents escalating to smoke, flames, or material ejection.

More than half of the recalls 57%) involve power banks, highlighting the need for additional safety considerations due to their widespread use and close proximity to users. A lower number of recalls 29%) are related to electric vehicles EVs, which largely reflects manufacturersʼ after-sales strategies focused on preventive and corrective actions. Underlying causes of battery recalls included substandard or inappropriate components, poor welding conditions, electrolyte leakage, and defects in raw material quality. In some cases, devices exhibited physical swelling or lacked required safety markings, prompting precautionary recalls. Collectively, these issues highlight ongoing vulnerabilities across the battery supply chain. Most battery recalls result from battery-related issues rather than downstream processing, installation or other. There is limited publicly available information regarding recalls initiated directly by battery manufacturers. This emphasizes the importance of proactive safety measures and accountability among battery manufacturers. The battery passport and other measures may assist in accountability.

E-mobility includes EV, BEV, PHEV, e-scooters, e-bikes, e-buses, e-trucks, and similar electric transportation devices. Portable appliances covers everyday devices such as headphones, fans, vacuums, speakers, and other small electronics.

Source: 1 OECD Global Recalls, 2 ASEAN, Data Collection and Analysis: Recall data aggregated from official international (OECD Global Recalls,ASEAN) and national safety recall databases around the world, including the US (US Consumer Product Safety Commission, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), UK, China, Japan, South Korea, India, and Canada. Data range Jan 2025 to mid-Nov 2025. Includes formal recalls with disclosed unit volumes only. Data concentration reflects regions with higher reporting transparency North America, East Asia).

Extracted from the PDF; charts and images may read imperfectly.