The 2022 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was a smashing success, and Energy Assurance was proud to announce some exciting new solutions at the bustling Vegas event.
After an all-digital 2021, over 40,000 attendees returned to the Las Vegas Convention Center from January 5-8, 2022. Exhibitors, attendees and 1,800 global media crisscrossed 11 indoor and outdoor venues, with nearly a third of attendees traveling from outside the US. All in all, CES saw visitors from 119 countries and 2,300 companies, who showcased the latest and greatest in digital and technology innovations.
CES Highlights
The Energy Assurance team was excited to explore our first in-person CES in a couple years, and the exhibits did not disappoint. Trends in automotive tech — and the EV space in particular — were big CES highlights.
Other CES highlights were diverse, spanning technology for pets, restaurants, medical use, and industrial applications, including:
Pet Tracking Tech: As Proffitt explained the exhibit, “Cross a Fitbit with an invisible fence and you’ve got dog health monitoring and containment all at the same time.”
- Restaurant Tech: Ferrell saw many exhibits that showed off a robotic serving assistant. “Think of it like a Roomba, but 3 or 4 feet high and with built-in trays. It can go back and forth to the kitchen as a delivery vehicle.” Proffitt elaborated with this example: “A server might have 10 people to serve, but they can only carry 2-3 peoples’ food. Load this thing up and it can follow them to the table. It’s always two feet behind.
Hearing Aids: The next-gen hearing devices are virtually invisible. “If you look in the person’s ear, it’s so small you can’t even see it,” Proffitt remarked.
- Electrified Earth Mover: In between the electric tugs and forklifts, Bobcat made a big splash with its new fully electrified earth mover. It may start at double the price of a normal ICE-powered Bobcat, but as Proffitt explains, “it pays for itself in not just fuel efficiency, but maintenance savings. There’s no hydraulics, no pumps…it’s all electric motors and will require far less time in maintenance than a traditional Bobcat.”
Battery Trends
CES 2022 attendees from Energy Assurance kept an eye out for battery trends in research, development, and the market at large over the next few years. Here are some of our core insights into the way things will go.
The so called “big four” of tier 1 battery suppliers will be heavily pre-occupied with EVs in the coming years. Companies that used to be able to hold their attention no longer can, and they’re often getting pushed to tier 2 and 3 battery suppliers to meet their needs.
Ferrell related a story that illustrates the struggle, even of major brands and organizations, to access batteries from their preferred suppliers. “When we brought on a NASA contract, I was shocked. NASA can’t get to the front of the line in terms of these tier 1 suppliers because they don’t buy in bulk. They’re now trying to team up with the Navy to increase their buying power. You’d think NASA would get the best batteries, but they don’t. Apple and Tesla do.”
Proffitt’s eyes were also opened by the NASA situation. “It’s sort of a running joke in the battery industry, this idea of dirt floors and chickens running around in the tier 3 factories, but it really does happen.These things can lead to contamination and reduction of quality, which makes careful testing and verification of quality all the more important.”
Solutions For the Battery Market in 2022
Energy Assurance used our attendance at CES 2022 to announce The Battery Index, our solution to the supplier tier bottleneck that’s sure to challenge companies in the coming years. We’ve been conducting robust supplier qualification analysis across the battery supply chain. Our battery index is a consumer reports offering for battery cells.
Traditionally, when a buyer goes to a supplier, they’ll be able to access a basic battery spec sheet produced by the supplier themselves. The limited and potentially biased information on these sheets is simply not enough to guarantee quality at the level most buyers will need. Many tier 2 and 3 battery suppliers make quality products, but it’s critical that you do your due diligence. “As we evolve from tier 1 being so readily available to tier 1 being reserved for EVs”, Proffitt explains, “full battery test data is a key component of risk reduction.”
Energy Assurance takes testing above and beyond what suppliers are willing or capable of completing. With a skim through the Energy Assurance Battery Index, you can assess a broad selection of suppliers, based on thorough and independent test data, and find precisely the one that fits your application and standards. Get it touch with us today for more information!
