Battery catches fire inside Rivian factory

According to foreign media reports, on the morning of May 28, the Normal, Illinois (Normal) Fire Department received a call to the police that the electric vehiclebattery was on fireat the Rivian plant in the town .When firefighters arrived at the scene, they found that the battery was in a state of fire and thermal runaway, meaning its cells were catching fire individually and causing a chain reaction throughout the battery pack.

Firefighters extinguished the open flame and continued to douse the battery pack with water to prevent it from reburning, a major problem when dealing with electric vehicle fires.They also called for support and were assisted by the nearby Bloomingdale fire brigade.

The cause of the fire is not yet known, but the fire department will investigate.The defective battery packs were being tested in the southwest part of the plant when the thermal runaway began, and Rivian quickly evacuated the associated area of ​​the plant so no one was injured in the incident.The battery pack was placed in a test cell, which also helped control the fire, and the damage from the fire did not exceed the test cell.

Image credit: Rivian

This is the third fire incident at the Rivian factory since it opened last fall, the report said.In October 2021, shortly after the plant became operational, firefighters entered the plant for the first time to put out a small fire in the battery assembly area, where most of the process is done by automated robots.In the second fire, in February, a vehicle at the plant burst into flames, and in this accident, the plant's fire-fighting system worked to keep the fire from spreading.

The Normoore plant is Rivian's only current production site, but the company is planning to build a new plant in Georgia that will be five times larger than the Normoor plant and will require a $5 billion investment.The new factory will also have a test track and off-road trails, as well as a training center, research building, logistics center and no less than 144chargingpoints for electric vehicles .