RACE TO THE FUTURE

Why a Chinese Company Dominates Electric Car Batteries

Beijing gave CATL lavish subsidies, a captive market of buyers and soft regulatory treatment, helping it to control a crucial technology of the future.

CATL’s headquarters, shaped like an oversize lithium battery, in Ningde, China.Credit…Qilai Shen for The New York Times

Keith Bradsher
Michael Forsythe

By Keith Bradsher and Michael Forsythe

  • Dec. 22, 2021, 
Keith Bradsher
Michael Forsythe

By Keith Bradsher and Michael Forsythe

  • Dec. 22, 2021, 3:00 a.m. ET

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NINGDE, China — As the global pandemic hit, the world’s biggest maker of electric car batteries, a Chinese company now worth more than General Motors and Ford combined, suddenly faced its own crisis.

A rival had released a video suggesting that a technology used by the company, CATL, and other manufacturers could cause car fires. Imitating a Chinese government safety test, the rival had driven a nail through a battery cell, one of many in a typical electric car battery. The cell exploded in a fireball.

Chinese officials took swift action — by dropping the nail test, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. The new regulation, released two months later, listed who had drafted it: First on the list, ahead of the government’s own vehicle testing agency, was CATL.