Best of LinkedIn: Electrification & Battery Technology CW 26/ 27

00:00:00: brought to you by Thomas Algeyer and Frenas.

00:00:02: This edition highlights key LinkedIn posts on electrification in battery technology, in weeks twenty six and twenty seven.

00:00:09: Frens is a BDB market research company that supports automotive suppliers with building feature-by-feature competitive intelligence That shows exactly how their product stacks up against the competition.

00:00:20: You can find more info in the description.

00:00:23: So welcome to the deep dive everyone today.

00:00:25: Our mission is Unpacking The Top Electrification and Battery Technology Trends that we've been seeing across LinkedIn over the past couple of weeks.

00:00:34: Yeah, thanks for having me.

00:00:35: it's well.

00:00:35: It's a really interesting time right now because the industry is rapidly maturing.

00:00:39: everly We're shifting away from this mindset of just you know putting hardware in the ground and focusing a lot more on smart utilization, grid integration and heavy-duty logistics.

00:00:49: Right okay let's unpack this because we're starting to see a really huge theme here right?

00:00:54: This move from just building out infrastructure too actual utilization discipline

00:00:58: Exactly it's the most visible part of the transition public charging And the industry is realizing that the sheer number of chargers matters a lot less than well whether they actually work when a driver pulls up.

00:01:13: Yeah, Fernando Favol had a great post about this.

00:01:15: he mentioned how the industry used to measure progress by just counting installed boxes you know but the real goal is a driver pulling up and charging without a second thought?

00:01:25: Great because that gap between installed That's exactly where trust is built, or you know totally lost.

00:01:32: Yeah and Bradford Chris from ChargeMate had some fascinating insight into this.

00:01:36: He did.

00:01:37: he pointed out that when a session fails the driver usually assumes it's a broken charger right like The Screen Is Dead?

00:01:43: Or whatever.

00:01:43: I'm for sure!

00:01:44: That's always my first thought.

00:01:45: But he notes that the hardware And the payment systems are usually Totally fine...the actual issue is vehicle compatibility.

00:01:52: Wait

00:01:52: really?!

00:01:53: Like they just can't talk to each

00:01:54: other??

00:01:55: Yeah, exactly.

00:01:56: He gave the example of older Tesla Model three's.

00:01:58: they actually need a physical service retrofit to use third-party fast chargers because The communication protocols just don't match up.

00:02:07: Wow so it's software handshake issue not a broken plug

00:02:10: right.

00:02:11: well That actually brings up Chris Jackson's breakdown of why Tesla chargers are so much cheaper and more reliable.

00:02:17: Oh yeah, that was a great analysis.

00:02:19: I mean Jackson noted the Tesla owns the whole chain right?

00:02:22: The vehicle to charge or the software.

00:02:25: So they build charges for around forty thousand dollars a bay while the industry average is like over a hundred thousand dollars.

00:02:31: It's

00:02:31: a massive difference and because they have millions of cars feeding them data, They can predict demand perfectly.

00:02:38: Yeah

00:02:39: which is just wild compared to what's happening with the Nevi program.

00:02:43: Angel E detailed this on LinkedIn And uh it's pretty bleak!

00:02:48: It really is.

00:02:49: I mean five billion dollars allocated in four years In...they've only spent about ninety-four million Which

00:02:53: was like two percent.

00:02:54: yeah Two percent and that resulted roughly one hundred twenty stations.

00:02:58: Oh,

00:02:58: man.

00:02:59: And Angela pointed out it wasn't a hardware failure right?

00:03:01: It was this massive coordination breakdown across agencies utilities landowners

00:03:07: exactly the lack of discipline left companies like Tritium EV box and LG totally exposed

00:03:15: its honestly Like building a massive fleet of airplanes

00:03:18: but

00:03:18: completely forgetting to build the air traffic control system.

00:03:21: That is a perfect way to look at

00:03:22: it!

00:03:23: I mean you can build a charger in an afternoon, but aligning a dozen stakeholders...is the real bottleneck?

00:03:28: Right and building on those coordination failures we really have to look that most critical stakeholder of all which is The Power Grid.

00:03:34: Oh absolutely Chelsea Millington.

00:03:36: Leifam brought this up.

00:03:38: She said EV charging projects don't even start with charges anymore or they start with grid capacity planning.

00:03:43: What's fascinating here is how urgent this has become.

00:03:45: Casper H Rasmussen posted about this and grid limits are a now problem, not a twenty-twenty nine problem!

00:03:51: Right didn't he mention countries actually freezing connections?

00:03:54: Yeah Denmark and the Netherlands are literally freezing grid connections And during a recent heat wave in Belgium evening power prices got pushed past one euro per kilowatt hour.

00:04:06: Jeez over a euro.

00:04:08: That's insane.

00:04:09: It is!

00:04:09: Flexibility is literally the only way forward right now.

00:04:12: Well speaking of flexibility, Christian J. Pena shared a brilliant real-world workaround for this.

00:04:17: Oh...the one at The Cosmopolitan?

00:04:19: Yeah,

00:04:20: down to Miami Beach.

00:04:21: So they had two hundred eight volt service available with the building

00:04:24: Which normally means you just can't do fast charger.

00:04:27: Right?

00:04:27: Normally you'd need this hugely expensive utility upgrade But instead They used step up transformer and managed load control.

00:04:34: That's so smart!

00:04:35: Yeah,

00:04:36: they managed to fit a DC fast charger within the building existing limits without waiting on utility.

00:04:41: It

00:04:41: is exactly that kind of engineering we need because since grid capacity has tapped out I mean... The Grid needs EVs just as much as the EVs need the Grid

00:04:48: Oh.. So moving into Vehicle the Grid or V-to-G?

00:04:51: Yeah

00:04:52: Biswanath Bose summarized the IEA Global EV Outlook and V-To-G Is finally entering commercial reality.

00:04:59: Its about time.

00:05:00: It feels like we've been in pilot phases forever.

00:05:02: Right, but Europe is leading this and the hardware from companies like Mobility House and Costal...is actually ready!

00:05:10: And Jennifer Granholm had some praise for GM's strategy here too.

00:05:14: She noted that GM has already sold nearly a quarter million vehicles equipped with bi-directional charging.

00:05:19: A quarter million?

00:05:20: That's as serious fleet.

00:05:22: Yeah

00:05:22: it all about turning your battery into an asset Something which keeps lights on and stabilizes the grid.

00:05:28: But Of course it's not perfectly smooth yet.

00:05:32: Manfred Prusabilla gave a dose of reality by breaking down Helian Energy V-IIG rollout in Switzerland.

00:05:38: Okay, what's the hold up there?

00:05:40: Well It is really bumpy road because you have four distinct software platforms that have to synchronize perfectly.

00:05:45: Four

00:05:46: What are they?

00:05:47: The vehicle...the charger the home energy management system, and the trading platform.

00:05:52: Oh wow!

00:05:52: So if one of those lags...the whole thing breaks?

00:05:54: Exactly they have to balance the needs of the driver, the homeowner ,and the grid operator all in real time.

00:06:01: And there's a huge behavioral hurdle on top of that.

00:06:05: Gregor Eckhardt mentioned that drivers often just don't bother plugging-in If their battery is already full

00:06:10: Which totally ruins the reliability of VTG

00:06:16: Right.

00:06:16: So to fix this, Nissan and EZ-Link are actually testing automated AC matrix charging.

00:06:22: Oh I saw that.

00:06:23: so the connection just happens automatically.

00:06:25: Yeah

00:06:25: without the driver doing anything.

00:06:26: park in it connects.

00:06:28: That solves the human element?

00:06:29: definitely

00:06:30: But wait i have to ask If we're constantly draining and filling these car batteries To support the grid aren't we going destroy the battery's lifespan Before cars even paid off?

00:06:40: It is a great question but hard data says otherwise.

00:06:44: Ashut Patel shared a report debunking the whole battery degradation myth.

00:06:47: Really, so they aren't dying early?

00:06:50: Not at all!

00:06:51: Real-world data shows modern EV batteries are retaining eighty to ninety percent of their capacity even after two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand miles.

00:06:59: Wow...two hundred thousand is a lot.

00:07:01: How were you doing that?

00:07:02: Better chemistry mostly like LFP batteries combined with really advanced thermal management.

00:07:09: That

00:07:09: perfectly lines up what Anna Ruggstruvistava was researching regarding second life batteries.

00:07:14: Yeah, his findings were super interesting.

00:07:16: He found that two identical batteries from the exact same year can have totally different fates.

00:07:22: It's not the age that predicts the remaining value

00:07:24: Right it is The driving

00:07:25: history.

00:07:26: Exactly!

00:07:27: The death of discharge Sheet exposure Fast charging habits That's what matters.

00:07:32: Actually, Khmer framed this so brilliantly.

00:07:34: he said the industry treats residual value like This prediction.

00:07:38: problem at the end of a car is life.

00:07:40: Yeah Like you just roll the dice when you trade it in right.

00:07:43: but instead companies should focus on preserving Value from day one through intelligent operating policies.

00:07:49: Residual value is built daily.

00:07:51: Oh I love that.

00:07:53: and speaking of building intelligent hardware Did you see Aboukar Hassan post about?

00:08:00: Yeah, that was incredible.

00:08:02: For

00:08:02: those who missed it they figured out how to use the EV Traction Motor's own stator windings as a boost inductor

00:08:08: which is huge because it cuts out all these heavy costly external components from DC charging hardware entirely.

00:08:16: yeah

00:08:16: total game changer for infrastructure costs.

00:08:19: absolutely and you know passenger EV batteries are really proving their worth, but electrifying massive heavy-duty logistics fleets is kind of the ultimate test.

00:08:29: Oh for sure!

00:08:30: The scale is just massive and Cigar Rodendahl mapped this out.

00:08:35: she noted that EU needs two hundred seventy nine thousand truck charging points by twenty thirty

00:08:41: And most those aren't even on the highway right?

00:08:42: Right Eighty-four

00:08:43: percent of them will be adipose.

00:08:44: The bottleneck is getting enough power into the fleet hub itself.

00:08:48: Yeah, and the global competition there is intense.

00:08:51: Steph Cornelis pointed out that Scania's CEO Actually lowered their twenty thirty e truck projections from fifty percent to just ten percent.

00:08:59: ten

00:08:59: percent Just blaming infrastructure

00:09:01: entirely blaming infrastructure.

00:09:03: But the thing is Chinese competitors aren't waiting.

00:09:05: yeah They are moving fast.

00:09:06: Sinitrix sold fifteen thousand e trucks early this year compared to Scania as one hundred and thirty three

00:09:12: Man, fifteen thousand compared to one hundred and thirty-three.

00:09:16: That's wild!

00:09:17: But the technology is racing to catch up at least...

00:09:20: It IS.

00:09:21: IneBehiyuFoot shared that Alpetronic just upgraded a charger to deliver a THOUSAND kilowatts through single liquid cooled CCS connector

00:09:31: A THOusand Kilowatts Through One Connector?

00:09:34: That brings megawatt charging into current infrastructure without even needing new MCS plugs.

00:09:40: Yeah it's huge step.

00:09:42: But if we connect this to the bigger picture, Anders Hove had a fascinating on-the-ground report from China about that.

00:09:47: Oh!

00:09:48: About the charge and swap

00:09:49: model?

00:09:49: Exactly heavy trucks are waiting at depots to charge during cheap nighttime electricity hours.

00:09:54: Okay but then they use fast battery swapping During The Day To Maximize Operating Uptime.

00:09:59: That is so smart getting the best of both worlds.

00:10:02: And Andy Wei reported the CETL and Octopus Energy just formed A joint venture to bring This exact Heavy Truck Battery Swap Network to Europe.

00:10:10: Yeah, it's moving incredibly fast which kind of leaves us with a provocative thought to ponder.

00:10:14: Let's hear it!

00:10:15: Well as bi-directional charging and battery swapping scale up the line between vehicle and grid is really disappearing.

00:10:23: yeah for sure

00:10:24: in the future when your car is constantly trading energy with the city or you know your truck swaps out its battery twice a day who really owns the energy in your tank.

00:10:34: wow Yeah, that's a wild thought.

00:10:36: You're just running the energy at that point.

00:10:38: Well if you enjoyed this episode new episodes drop every two weeks.

00:10:41: also check out our other editions on future mobility and market evolution next-gen vehicle intelligence And commercial fleet insights.

00:10:48: Thank you so much for joining us for this deep dive.

00:10:50: everyone don't forget to subscribe and we'll see you next time.