…LG or Samsung,” Whitacre says. “These are known as ‘low cost li-ion batteries’ by most in the industry—they are not knockoffs or copies, but are instead just mass-manufactured cells.”
With these cheap batteries, a lot of things can cause fires. For one, the nature of a hoverboard is that it can bang into stuff, smash into things at high speeds—all of which makes the batteries susceptible to damage. It’s not just the nature of a cheap battery, it’s the nature of any lithium-ion battery. And when one of these batteries punctures, they catch fire and explode.
Davis says the safety commission is looking at the entire line of hoverboard products. “There aren’t any standards for these products,” she says.
So what do in the meantime? You just might want to stick with your dolls or some old-school G.I. Joe’s with the kung-fu grip.