Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co Ltd is recalling more than 270,000 vehicles after reports of engine fires. Also, Hitachi Ltd announced yesterday that it would replace about 16,000 faulty laptop batteries made by Sony Corp.

The decision to recall Honda vehicles, which was announced on Thursday, came after Japan received reports of two small Odyssey minivans catching fire and the engines of 104 Life minicars breaking down, the China News Service reported, citing an official of Japan's transport authority.

Honda will recall 117,500 Odyssey minivans and 153,000 Life minicars, the report said, citing an unnamed spokesperson for the company.

Of the minivans that are being recalled, 85,000 were sold in Japan while the rest were sold on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand, the spokesperson said. The Life minicars were sold in Japan only, according to the report.

The Japanese transport official said an unspecified defect had been discovered in the windshield wiper of Odyssey and it may have led to circuits catching fire in freezing weather.

The defective engines used in Life minicars would result in a sudden breakdown after the battery ran out, the official said.

Honda decided earlier this year to recall 35,000 Fit cars sold in Japan for defective brake lamps and 1,441 Odyssey cars for ignition problems sold in China.

Faulty batteries

Hitachi Ltd, which makes computers, flat-panel televisions and nuclear power plants, will also replace about 16,000 faulty laptop batteries made by Sony Corp, bringing the number of global recalls to 8 million in two months, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.

The company will replace the power cells for free as part of a global replacement program, according to Bloomberg, citing Hitachi spokesman Masahiro Takahashi.

Though other computer makers have also complained about Sony's overheating lithium-ion batteries, there have been no reports of battery trouble with the laptops of the Tokyo-based Hitachi, according to the spokesman.

Sony is paying to replace the cells worldwide after the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry asked the company to investigate instances of the lithium-ion cells overheating and possibly bursting into flames.

Editor: Yan