CATL, the world's largest manufacturer of electric vehicle batteries and one of Tesla's key suppliers, had a major fire that broke out for hours at one of its main battery plants in China.
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (CATL) emerged as the world's largest battery supplier to the automotive industry in the past few years, and it's not even close.
The company is also credited as an important part of the success of Tesla's Gigafactory Shanghai, which supplies LFP battery cells. The Gigafactory Shanghai is Tesla's most productive EV plant.
That's why many in the industry were worried when they heard that CATL had a significant fire at its Z plant in Ningde, Fujian province, China.
A fire broke out at the factory yesterday and it was said to be big enough that it took hours to put it out.
Fortunately, no injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
The company noted that it expects the impact on production to be “minimal”.
Electrek's Take
If true, that should be a relief to the auto industry, which relies heavily on CATL.
CATL's battery production capacity reached 259.7 GWh last year – more than a third of the world's total EV battery production capacity.
Any disruption in their operations could have a major impact on the industry, especially Chinese car manufacturers.
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