A risk of battery overheating prompted Garmin to issue Wednesday a voluntary...
A risk of battery overheating prompted Garmin to issue Wednesday a voluntary recall of roughly 1.25 million Nuvi personal navigation devices, including 796,000 units sold in the U.S. Nuvi 7-series and 200W, 250W, and 260W PNDs are affected by the…
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recall -- www.garmin.com/nuvibatterypcbrecall -- a result of problems with batteries with a particular circuit board design made by a supplier during a specified time. “It appears that the interaction of these factors can, in rare circumstances, increase the possibility of overheating, which may lead to a fire hazard,” Garmin said. The problem has been found in fewer than 10 batteries, none of which caused significant damage or injury, the company said. Garmin said it doesn’t expect the recall to hurt its financial results substantially. The unspecified battery supplier has to share the cost of the recall program, including new battery packs, it said. Garmin recently lowered its 2010 revenue projection to $2.8 billion from $3 billion, citing lower sales of Nuvifone, a softening of PND markets and unfavorable foreign exchange markets (CED Aug 5 p4). The company said in its Q2 earnings webcast that unit sales of PNDs will decline. It pointed to global consolidation and the increasing availability of GPS in smartphones.