A sudden fire broke out in the CATL’s Z plant on September 29. This factory, constructed in 2020, supplies batteries to Tesla and other car manufacturers in China. According to CATL’s officials, the fire was quickly extinguished without casualties. The cause of the ignition is under investigation.
CATL is the world’s biggest NEV battery maker, founded in 2011. It currently has thirteen factories worldwide. In China, CATL holds almost 50% of the market share. CATL started constructing the Z manufacturing base in Ningde, Fujian province, in 2019. The plant was finished in September 2020 and was awarded as the Industry 4.0 technology factory (a lighthouse factory). It is this factory that ignited in China on September 29.
CATL Z plant ignition details
At 11:26 on September 29, the Publicity Department of the Dongqiao Economic and Tech Development Zone received an alarm that a fire broke out at the CATL Z plant. Fire forces immediately rushed to the site to deal with the emergency. The fire broke out in an independent building in the CATL Z plant area. It is a high-temperature static block with an area of 15,000 square meters.
On late September 29, CATL officials responded to the situation. They said the fire monitoring system helped to discover the fire and deal with it quickly. The fire was successfully extinguished with no casualties. Officials underlined that the impact of the company’s overall production operation is small. CATL chairman Robin Zeng also said that the ignition isn’t a big problem.
The cause of the ignition is still under investigation. It is also unknown how the fire will influence the factory’s supply period. The Z plant sells batteries to various automakers, including Tesla. However, we at CarNewsChina are happy that this ignition wasn’t as deadly as a massive factory fire in South Korea that killed 22 people.
Source: Sina, CATL
Why do you say: Tesla’s supplier when they supply batteries to many other car manufacturers?
Hi, Gustavo! How are you doing?
Good question! I’ve underlined that CATL is the Tesla’s supplier as many unexperienced readers aren’t acquainted with other NEV brands, especially Chinese. So, we at CNC wanted to emphasise the importance of the CATL Z factory in the supply chain by saying that it is the supplier of the world’s biggest EV brand.
I thought BYD had overtaken Tesla as the biggest
yes BYD has overtaken Tesla years ago.
And in China tesla is not even in the top 5 EV.
Seems many have this affinity to Tesla not sure why as it is pretty boring looking for an EV
Hi, Leon! Good point. BYD overtook Tesla in BEV sales in Q4 2023. However, Tesla was still ahead of the Chinese automaker in full 2023 in terms of electric cars sales volume. We’ll see if BYD will overtake Tesla this year
for factories of this size and complexity, including musk’s giga factories, they should have their own full fledged fire fighting department too …