Best of LinkedIn: Electrification & Battery Technology CW 50 - 01

00:00:00: brought to you by Thomas Allgaier and Frenus.

00:00:02: This edition highlights key LinkedIn posts on electrification and battery technology in weeks fifty oh one.

00:00:08: Frenus supports automotive enterprises and consultancies with market and competitive intelligence.

00:00:12: So product teams and strategy leaders do have the optimal base for their strategic decisions.

00:00:19: OK, let's unpack this deep dive into the top electrification and battery technology trends we've seen across LinkedIn.

00:00:25: And what stands out immediately is that the conversation has.

00:00:29: officially shifted.

00:00:30: It's really moved away from if EVs will succeed to how they operate profitably at scale.

00:00:37: Exactly.

00:00:37: The focus is now totally on execution and reliability, not just, you know.

00:00:41: peak technology.

00:00:42: Well, what's fascinating here is we're seeing megawatt charging, heavy duty fleets, V-to-G, they're being framed less as side experiments and more as vital components of a future energy system.

00:00:52: As actual grid assets.

00:00:53: As actual grid assets, yeah.

00:00:55: So we really need to look closely at the operational and the policy pivots that are happening right now.

00:01:01: So let's start there.

00:01:02: The success of all this physical technology, it really relies on the regulatory and economic structures built around it.

00:01:09: Okay, so let's unpack this.

00:01:12: What is fundamentally missing for the end user right now?

00:01:15: Price transparency.

00:01:16: It sounds so simple, but it's huge.

00:01:18: I saw Helmut Wiccan noted that a core frustration.

00:01:20: drivers express is just, I don't know how much this is going to cost me.

00:01:24: That's a completely legitimate expectation.

00:01:26: It needs to be addressed with a clear breakdown, a price display before you even start charging.

00:01:32: That's how you build trust.

00:01:33: And governments are trying to respond, trying to cut through the complexity.

00:01:36: Monica Troilo detailed Germany's charging infrastructure master plan, twenty thirty.

00:01:41: And it really focuses on streamlining, permitting and crucially supporting ISO.

00:01:47: one five one eighteen twenty.

00:01:48: Which is so important for grid integration for smart charging.

00:01:51: It's

00:01:51: the whole backbone.

00:01:52: And we're seeing this kind of strategic industrial policy in action elsewhere.

00:01:57: Harold M. Depta highlighted Spain's approach

00:01:59: with a purity and lose three programs.

00:02:01: Exactly.

00:02:02: They're using them to attract EV and battery manufacturing investments, and they're aiming for ninety-five percent electrified vehicles produced by twenty thirty-five.

00:02:11: That kind of predictability, you know, it attracts capital.

00:02:14: And here's where it gets really interesting for corporate fleets.

00:02:17: Marcella Crowell noted that starting in twenty-twenty-six, subsidies for e-company cars are going to require verifiable proof of one hundred percent green electricity usage.

00:02:26: Wow.

00:02:27: So now your energy data and your documentation are tied directly into compliance.

00:02:31: That changes the game.

00:02:33: So that brings us to the heaviest users then.

00:02:36: Heavy duty fleets.

00:02:37: The consensus is that twenty twenty six is shaping up to be the year of the electric truck.

00:02:41: James Carter argued it's all driven by TCO advantage, but that success hinge is entirely on charging infrastructure readiness.

00:02:47: Totally.

00:02:48: And on that note, Tobias Wagner and Michael Clark confirm the network is already pretty substantial.

00:02:53: They said there are over thirteen hundred truck ready charging locations you can find across Europe right now.

00:02:58: So the infrastructure is there.

00:03:00: It's there, but the real debate is where the charging power should be deployed.

00:03:05: I saw Jens Winkler stressing that while megawatt charging or MCS is the superstar.

00:03:11: robust CCS-II depot charging is the actual backbone.

00:03:16: He cited an ICCT study projecting that eighty-five percent of total EU truck fleet charging power needs by twenty-thirty.

00:03:23: Eighty-five percent

00:03:24: will be met through depot and overnight charging.

00:03:26: So it's stability over peak power.

00:03:29: He made a great point that a four hundred kilowatt charger that derates to two hundred fifty after thirty minutes is just a liability for a logistics schedule.

00:03:37: A

00:03:37: huge liability.

00:03:38: Trucks need that high power consistently and for long durations.

00:03:41: And that

00:03:41: brings up the need for separation from passenger cars.

00:03:44: Oh, absolutely.

00:03:45: Bozar-Kristoff observed that when you have these high-power chargers shared, the truck's rate just drops significantly the moment a passenger car plugs in.

00:03:52: Which creates massive operational problems for time-sensitive commercial operators.

00:03:56: Right.

00:03:56: So you need dedicated commercial charging areas.

00:03:59: And we're starting to see these early hubs emerge.

00:04:01: Yeah.

00:04:01: Jonah Toyray's mentioned Finland's largest heavy-duty vehicle charging station in the port of Hamid Akadka.

00:04:07: It's offering a record a twelve hundred kilowatt MCS dispenser.

00:04:12: And for Brice Kathman, confirm the first public megawatt charging park in Germany's Ruhr region is coming in mid twenty twenty six.

00:04:19: So you can see it's really moving into the deployment phase.

00:04:21: OK, so that's charging.

00:04:23: The other major theme is bi-directional charging.

00:04:25: VDG V-IIH.

00:04:27: Right, the interoperability challenge.

00:04:28: When your ma'am Noon called it a game changer, you know, turning the EV into a mobile battery that can potentially make you money.

00:04:36: So what does this all actually mean for the grid?

00:04:38: Well, the potential is massive.

00:04:40: Andrew Daniels explained how two-way charging can stop renewable energy from being wasted, from being curtailed.

00:04:45: And

00:04:45: Toyota had that startling statistic.

00:04:47: if all four million EVs on US roads were V-IIG enabled.

00:04:51: They could contribute forty thousand megawatts to the grid.

00:04:54: That's

00:04:54: equivalent to forty nuclear reactors.

00:04:56: It's an incredible amount of distributed storage.

00:04:58: But, and this is a big but, the path to realizing the value is complex.

00:05:03: Casey Boyce emphasized that real world VTG value is, and I'm quoting him, overwhelmingly determined by rate design, not just the tech.

00:05:12: So the policy has to be right?

00:05:14: Exactly.

00:05:14: He also noted that driving behavior, you know, plugging in only when your state of charge is low, leaves a ton of energy capacity on the table.

00:05:22: Which then raises this really important question.

00:05:24: What does Beterity even mean right now?

00:05:27: Good question.

00:05:28: Nicholas Hamburger and Sebastian Leuke stressed that it often just means physically capable.

00:05:32: Right, but scaling VEDIG requires rigorous interoperability.

00:05:36: It needs standards like ISO, one fifty one, eighteen twenty clear security frameworks,

00:05:41: which is what train is actively testing.

00:05:43: Juan Miguel Espinlópez saw this firsthand at their recent testivals.

00:05:47: And we are seeing pilots moving to scale, though.

00:05:49: Robbenberg reported the national V-to-G rollout is accelerating in the Netherlands.

00:05:53: My wheels is tripling its shared Renault Five fleet and installing new V-to-G public chargers.

00:05:58: So it's happening.

00:05:59: It's happening.

00:06:00: And beyond VTG, the battery itself is undergoing a fundamental shift in how it's designed and managed.

00:06:07: Let's start with longevity and circularity.

00:06:09: I really like Stefan Grocer's anecdote about the twelve-year-old Smart EV.

00:06:13: It was so relatable.

00:06:14: Instead of a seventeen-thousand-euro battery replacement, a partial repair of just the weak cells cost nine hundred euros.

00:06:21: And it restored capacity from seventy-five percent to ninety-five percent.

00:06:25: Exactly.

00:06:26: It highlights the sufficiency thinking.

00:06:28: resource conservation over just replacing everything.

00:06:31: And

00:06:31: then on the high tech side, Mark Moulton reported on Donut Lab's solid state battery claims.

00:06:36: They're talking four hundred watt hours per kilogram density and a one hundred thousand cycle life.

00:06:41: If that's true at scale, that's a full charge in five minutes.

00:06:43: A genuine step change.

00:06:44: It

00:06:45: is.

00:06:45: But what about the end of life cycle for what we have now?

00:06:48: Piotr Pollak noted that CATL's subsidiary is achieving near a hundred percent recovery of cathode element.

00:06:53: And over ninety six percent of lithium from a hundred twenty thousand tons of used batteries.

00:06:57: That shows high efficiency.

00:06:58: recycling is moving from a promise to actual measurable metrics.

00:07:02: This is happening now.

00:07:03: And connecting this back to operations, the charging infrastructure itself is becoming more software defined.

00:07:09: Casper H. Rasmuson argued the competitive edge for a CPMS in twenty twenty six will really rely on scalability and AI integration.

00:07:18: To minimize manual processes, yeah.

00:07:21: And to achieve, he said, a ninety nine percent successful charge session rate.

00:07:26: That's the key metric.

00:07:27: And Sebastian Hensler highlighted sun grows.

00:07:29: focus on open modular software as the foundation for that stability rather than proprietary customization.

00:07:37: And that shift to robust software is seen in standardization efforts too.

00:07:41: Mark O'Muller reported that the open source Everest project reached a valuation of six hundred million dollars.

00:07:47: That's

00:07:47: a huge signal of maturing software infrastructure.

00:07:50: It's becoming the reference implementation and it secures the whole ecosystem against patent risks.

00:07:54: Okay, so finally let's tie all this back to the OEMs.

00:07:56: Let's look at strategy and market signals because not everyone is moving in lockstep here.

00:08:01: No, definitely not.

00:08:02: The Ford F- one fifty.

00:08:03: lightning right down is really instructive.

00:08:05: Michael Andragoma has argued this was just a strategic failure, a misunderstanding of the customer.

00:08:09: Because trucks are capital equipment.

00:08:12: They prioritize uptime, serviceability, TCO.

00:08:15: It's not about ideology or lifestyle signaling.

00:08:18: So retreating to hybrids and EREVs is sort of a necessary bridge for them.

00:08:23: It's what the market is demanding.

00:08:24: And then you have the complete opposite side of that.

00:08:27: Omer Yahi positioned Chinese manufacturers as the pace-setters.

00:08:30: They're combining advanced software-defined vehicles with unique operating models.

00:08:35: Like battery swap stations.

00:08:37: Jason Yu gave a first-hand look at a two-megawatt truck battery swap station in China.

00:08:42: The automated swap takes under five minutes.

00:08:44: Under five minutes.

00:08:44: And it operates as a virtual power plant.

00:08:46: It's a massive advantage.

00:08:48: And this raises an important question for European OEMs.

00:08:51: Yeah.

00:08:51: Professor Dr.

00:08:52: Benedict Meyer suggested that while reduced CO-II targets might give them breathing room.

00:08:57: The long-term risk is that slow economies of scale and consumer confusion will just hinder them.

00:09:01: They need to get serious about pursuing software and powertrain leadership.

00:09:05: So what does all of this mean then?

00:09:07: I think it means the next phase of electrification is just defined by execution.

00:09:12: It's about reliable depot charging, securing V-to-G interoperability, and using software to manage complexity.

00:09:19: Yeah.

00:09:19: And here's where it gets really interesting for me.

00:09:22: Given that massive market shift in commercial fleets where, as Marcus Bock said, operators can do the math.

00:09:29: And you combine that with the promise of solid state batteries.

00:09:32: The focus on reliability.

00:09:34: The focus on reliability is going to be the single biggest competitive edge in twenty twenty six.

00:09:39: If the technology and economics align, then operational stability is the final hurdle.

00:09:44: That's the one metric to watch.

00:09:45: If you enjoyed this deep dive.

00:09:47: New additions drop every two ways.

00:09:49: Also check out our other additions on future mobility and market evolution, next-gen vehicle intelligence and commercial fleet insights.

00:09:56: Thank you for joining us for this deep dive.

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