Hoverboards, battery-powered self-balanced scooters which are now the hottest holiday gift in the U.S., are literally too hot. Some of them catch fire or even explode, injuring riders, which prompted an investigation by the U.S. regulators to find the exact cause.

Amid increasing concerns over possibly defective lithium-ion batteries deployed in the devices, battery-maker Samsung SDI said most of the batteries involved in the fire and explosion cases were made by counterfeiters.
 
Many U.S. news reports, including those on broadcasting network ABC, quoted a company manager as saying that Samsung SDI supplies cylinder-shaped batteries to manufacturers of notebooks, power tools and electric bicycles, but not to hoverboard scooter manufacturers.

Some of the batteries used in hoverboards which caught fire or exploded were counterfeits of Samsung SDI’s batteries, according to the news reports.

The manager added that customers are advised to buy hoverboards through the official websites of credible manufacturers and try to identify whether appropriate batteries are installed.

There are many differences between the original batteries and fake ones -- there is no bar code on original Samsung SDI batteries; the letter “I” in the company’s logo is printed in the gulim font -- similar to sans serif -- and some counterfeit batteries have a misspelled logo such as Samsing.
 
Major global retailers including Amazon, Tesco and Argos have stopped sales of the boards in the aftermath of the safety issues.

Some small online retailers in Korea import and sell scooters with price tags ranging from $400 to $1,000. 

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)