Battery Intelligence Company Voltaiq Releases Survey Research on the State of the Battery Industry

BERKELEY, Calif., June 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Voltaiq, the leader in Battery Intelligence™ software solutions, today released Preparing for The Electrification Tsunami, an industry survey, in partnership with Total Battery Consulting. The study examined many of the challenges and opportunities battery manufacturers, suppliers and integrators currently face in an economy that is increasingly dependent on batteries for energy storage, and to power consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and other devices.

"The global battery industry is facing unprecedented growth and change," said Tal Sholklapper, CEO of Voltaiq. "Over the next decade, as we continue the shift to an electric economy, we will see an increase in demand and production for lithium ion battery technologies. Performance, capability, and reliability of batteries are paramount to industry growth, but there are significant challenges standing in the way. This survey sheds light on some of these challenges, and we hope it will kickstart a conversation on how to best address them to ensure the industry remains on a path to keep up with demand."

Conducted in Q1 2019, the survey polled professionals from a broad spectrum of industry segments, including battery cell producers, battery pack and component developers, academic and national labs, and companies involved in transportation, consumer electronics, and energy storage. While more than half of the respondents were located in North America, other regions, including Europe and Japan, were also represented.

The Productivity Crisis

When asked to name the biggest concern regarding their most recent battery project, the number one answer - given by nearly 35% of respondents - was time to market. (Battery reliability was number-two at 19%.) This survey sheds light on what might be hindering time to market. When asked to note the biggest bottlenecks in their workflow, respondents' answers fell into three main themes:

• Scarcity of expertise and resources. Nearly 40 percent of respondents cited a shortage of battery engineers as a constraint in their development work. An even greater proportion - more than 44% of respondents - noted that there were insufficient resources for the number of battery projects underway.
• Time-consuming evaluations. More than a quarter of respondents - nearly 27% - listed the amount of time required to estimate battery life as a key bottleneck. Nearly the same number - just over 25% - said there were too many battery vendors to evaluate, while more than 20% said there were too many battery materials to evaluate.
• Data challenges. Survey participants also highlighted their difficulties working with battery data. More than 22% cited the challenge presented by data silos: information they needed was available but not readily available to their team. Another 17% noted problems with data quality: often the required data was messy, inconsistent, or hard to use.

The Data-to-Insights-to-Decisions Challenge

Looking at data issues specifically, the survey found several key trouble spots:

• Data management is a time sink. Nearly a third of respondents spend 1 to 5 hours per week looking for and preparing data before it analyzed. And engineers and scientists are not the only ones devoting sizeable chunks of their time to data. The survey revealed that two thirds of managers and directors are working directly with battery data - with a full third devoting more than six hours a week to that work.
• Data volume is expected to grow. Most respondents - approximately 68% - expect the volume of battery data to at least double in the next five years. Indeed, more than a third believe it will grow by 5x or more in that time period (with nearly 5% expecting it to increase more than 100 times over).
• The challenges of extracting insights and leveraging them to spark fast-paced but astute decision-making are only going to increase. Not only will data volumes grow, but so too will the complexity of the requisite analytics. For those who responded that they work with battery data, more than 40% of respondents anticipate a doubling or more of analytical effort over the next five years. Nearly 24% expect at least a 5x increase.

"The EV market represents the largest segment of growth for the battery industry, and auto manufacturers certainly aren't immune to any of these challenges," said Sholklapper. "It all starts with the battery. And unless these challenges are addressed, the scarcity of resources, industry expertise, time to market constraints, and the inability to efficiently analyze data to help improve performance and range of EV batteries could have a significant impact on the growth of the market and wider adoption of electric vehicles."

"Thankfully, the survey isn't all bleak: Some are beginning to take notice and investing in analytics software and productivity tools, prioritizing manufacturing, hiring more engineers with battery experience, and entering joint ventures with existing battery manufacturers to boost product development," said Sholklapper. "These investments are a good step forward to safeguarding industry stability, as demand for batteries and battery performance grows."

Click HERE to download a full copy of the survey report, or visit https://www.voltaiq.com.  

About Voltaiq
Voltaiq is the industry leader in advanced battery analytics solutions for the consumer electronics, transportation, and energy storage market segments. Fortune 500 companies, major universities and leading-edge battery companies trust Voltaiq to provide a comprehensive and transparent view of all their battery data across the product lifecycle. The company's real-time software solutions provide actionable insights that measurably reduce product development time, create more robust products, and mitigate product risk. For more information, please visit https://www.voltaiq.com.

CONTACT
Rob Haralson for Voltaiq
[email protected], (202) 674-6679

SOURCE Voltaiq