[fsloth]

So your theory is that this is the result of industrial sabotage facilitated by a government?

Given that three letter agencies have assisted in industrial espionage in the past and industrial facilities have been damaged through remote exploits (iran's uranium centrifuges were targeted with a virus if I recall correctly) it certainly is not impossible.

However, we are discussing lots of sensitive batteries so problems in the errors of margin in manufacture or operations is a simpler explanation.