Leading automakers are lining up to get into the battery industry. OEMs and brands from GM to Kia, Hyundai, Honda, Mercedes-Benz and many others are recognizing that the future of cars is electric…and anyone who isn’t investing big in EV battery technology is sure fall behind.
“Traditional OEMs just realized this could be like the asteroid that killed the dinosaur,” Qichao Hu, the CEO and founder of SES, told Crunchbase. Ford is hoping to avoid such a potential extinction event with EV funding investments of up to $20 billion over the next 5-10 years. Virtually every major carmaker is following suit.
“Elon Musk has shown a car company is really now a battery company,” said Doron Myersdorf, CEO of Israel-based StoreDot. “All the carmakers realize that now.”
Venture Funding for EV Battery Startups Is Surging
EV-related venture investments have skyrocketed over the last few years, and 2022 will continue the upward surge. According to Crunchbase’s recent news report, EV battery startups raised more than $3.6 billion in total VC-based EV funding last year, more than tripling 2020 levels and more than doubling the average number of annual deals.
These are huge deals, too. Take Qichao Hu’s Woburn, Massachusetts-based EV battery startup, SES, for example. They’ve just closed a $139 million Series D (led by General Motors) for their innovative hybrid lithium metal battery.
Energy Assurance is incredibly excited to see such enthusiasm in the market for battery research and development. We’ve equipped our own Boston-area independent battery testing laboratory to accommodate necessary surges in demand for test capacity and rigorous new test protocols.
Battery Testing For the Next Generation
The next generation of vehicles will start with the battery and software, and build up from there. Lithium-ion batteries are the industry standard today, but emerging and emergent technologies such as solid-state batteries are highly intriguing to EV funding ventures. While solid-state may offer higher energy density and safety in the long run, it will take robust testing and benchmarking to validate engineering concepts and confirm performance.
Energy Assurance provides a full array of testing capabilities for new and existing battery technologies — both in the EV space and for smaller formats such as consumer electronics — including, but not limited to:
- Cycle life testing
- Cell validation testing
- Environmental testing
- Calendar life storage testing
- Cold crank tests
- HPPC
- Failure analysis
- Competitor benchmarking
- Charge rate mapping
- Customized grid-storage/ESS lifecycle profiles
- Other custom procedures
Our independent facility provides your lab with access to over 20,000 additional square feet of testing capacity with support for multiple industry-standard formats, including large capacity prismatic (both opposed and same-side tab). Accelerate your time-to-market with the latest cutting edge EV battery products by leveraging Energy Assurance’s 1,180 cell test channels and over 150 environmental chambers.
We’re ready to meet the demands of the EV funding boom with a team that boasts more than 100 years of combined industry-relevant battery test experience. Schedule a consult today to learn more about how access to the premier battery life and performance testing facility in the U.S. can help your lab compete.
