Hannover Messe has come and gone, but we’ve brought you a slice of the show from Germany. This episode of The Battery Podcast is a show floor recording with Max Radford of Siemens interviewing Siemens’ Senior VP of Automotive – Bernd Mangler, the Chief Procurement Officer  for BASF – Dr. Matthias Dohrn, and VP of BMW and Chariman of the Board at Catena X – Oliver Ganzer.

Building out the framework for battery passports is a complex challenge, but these three experts have some good insights. Not just on how it’s progressing, but where progress is going.

What you’ll learn:

• The pressing need for battery passports in automotive and battery industries

• How industry partnerships like Catena X are tackling complex value chains

• Building trust across the value chain and spanning continents

• The future of industry partnerships like Catena X

It’s a new season of the Battery Podcast and a new industry to talk about. In the first half of our discussion with Todd Tuthill – VP of Aerospace, Defense, and Marine Industries at Siemens Digital Industries Software – we dove into the electrification of air transportation and the challenges it brings. But beyond the technological challenges of electrified aircraft, there are durability and safety implications that still need to be fleshed out to break into the mainstream.

In part two we are covering some of the more specific challenges battery electric aircraft bring to design and manufacturing, from safety measures to product validation. We’ll go beyond battery applications for Electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (EVTOL) craft as small delivery vehicles such as those from Zipline.

What you’ll learn:

• The possibility of solid-state batteries

• Building out an aircraft architecture with batteries in mind

• Long-term goals of electric aircraft

• The value of digitalization for these emergent aircraft

To kick off the new season of the Battery Podcast, we’re checking out an industry we’ve yet to cover and one that creates unique challenges for battery technologies and manufacturing. For a discussion on the application of batteries in the aerospace industry, Puneet Sinha and Nick Finberg sit down with Todd Tuthill, the VP of Aerospace, Defense, and Marine Industries at Siemens Digital Industries Software.

In this first part of the conversation, you will learn about the challenges air transportation brings to the battery ecosystem as well as some of the innovative products businesses are working on to bring about a revolution in transport. And we’ll also cover some of the solutions businesses are deploying to make this future a reality.

What you’ll learn:

• A new avenue of electrified transportation

• Overcoming the challenge of energy density

• Building out infrastructure for electric aircraft

• Defining the design for a successful product

It is the last episode of The Battery Podcast’s first season, and it is also the second half to a conversation of industry experts from Siemens, AWS, and Voltaiq. In Part One, we covered the critical need for data driven manufacturing in the battery industry as well as the potential development timeline acceleration such an approach brings. In Part Two, we are diving into how businesses can integrate a data-driven approach into their operations.

Your host is Puneet Sinha of Siemens Digital Industries and our guests for this final episode are Hari Gopalakrishna Head of Strategy, Sustainability, and EV at AWS and Tal Sholklapper, CEO of Voltaiq. Let’s dive into how data-driven manufacturing can bring long-term success to a sometimes-uncertain industry.

What you’ll learn:

• [00:30] Building out data-driven manufacturing starts with a foundation in IT-OT convergence and the digital twin

• [06:46] Applying data and intelligence to the common problems of battery manufacturing

• [09:51] The role of AI in data-driven manufacturing

• [13:50] How the partnership of Siemens, AWS, and Voltaiq can help battery manufacturers

We are wrapping up the first season of The Battery Podcast with a two-part discussion from the Battery Show and a couple high-profile partners from the industry. Puneet Sinha invites his counterparts from AWS and Voltaiq on stage to talk about the role of data-driven manufacturing in the battery industry.

Regulars to the series know that Puneet is the Global Head of Battery at Siemens Digital Industries, but his guests are Hari Gopalakrishna Head of Strategy, Sustainability, and EV at AWS and Tal Sholklapper, CEO of Voltaiq. Let’s dive into how data-driven manufacturing can bring long-term success to a sometimes-uncertain industry.

What you’ll learn:

• [0:31] How three expert companies in their fields came together

• [7:20] Why data-driven manufacturing is critical for the battery industry

• [8:45] How a data driven approach can accelerate development timelines

• [12:03] The business case for standardized factory architectures

Electric cars may not be the perfect solution for every transportation need, but by investing in a more sustainable manufacturing process for batteries EVs can become a greener option when they do make sense. Norway is one of the strongest use case regions for the technology with cheap renewable power, semi-remote transportation routes outside the cities, and a population with a high sense of responsibility for the environment. And Morrow Batteries is working to bring the benefits of battery electric transportation to more of Europe and do so sustainably.

To talk about the development of green battery production in Europe, Frank Johnny Bråthen (Siemens Head of Digital Industries in Norway), Bernd Mangler (Vice President of Solutions at Siemens), Lars Christian Bacher (CEO Morrow Batteries), and Andreas Maier (COO Morrow Batteries) took some time on the stage at Hannover Fair 2024.

What you’ll learn:

• [5:30] Norway’s path to sustainable battery leadership in Europe

• [9:53] How are companies meeting the KPIs for sustainability?

• [12:10] Achieving high production yields

The complexity and globalization of automotive development brings challenges to businesses of all sizes. But for Small to medium sized enterprises, the impact can be much more acute as they do not necessarily have the established structures to best work within the established industry processes. And this story is incredibly important for the battery industry as it works to become more competitive in the realm of transportation.

To talk about how businesses around the world are overcoming this challenge with digitalization and strong partnerships, Claus Cremers of Siemens AG and Frank Göller of Audi AG discuss to growing role of Catena X as an industry group for the automotive industry.

What you’ll learn:

• [2:00] What challenges are companies working to overcome by working with Catena X

• [7:10] The role of the ecosystem in automotive

• [12:40] The ecosystem goes beyond the enterprise with the Battery Passport

The story of battery manufacturing is one of scale. Researchers, manufacturers, and OEMs are working to make batteries lighter, make them in higher numbers, and make them across a wider region. Even the name of these factories alludes to the scale of operation and not just the production capacity of gigawatts. But the process of gaining scale from a laboratory breakthrough to a manufacturing juggernaut is the most important story of scale in the industry.

For this episode of the battery podcast, Marc Deyda of Siemens Digital Industries talks with Philipp Wunderlich of Accenture about how companies are staying competitive as they develop more sustainable battery production processes and methodologies.

What you’ll learn:

• [2:25] The challenges of setting up gigafactories

• [5:20] The role of strong partnerships

• [8:52] Enabling sustainable battery manufacturing

There is a really big shift in the battery industry to bring manufacturing closer to the centers of need and produce locally. But doing this still relies on existing global supply chains, hence the push for glocalization. Making a successful debut in this new mode of operation requires working with the right team and being able to work from great experiential knowledge. But the rewards for this work are worth it in becoming a more sustainable battery manufacturer.

For episode 11 of the Battery Podcast we have a discussion of how one company managed this change to the industry – KORE Power – along with voices out of Siemens Financial Services and Siemens Smart Infrastructure. This episode is a little longer than usual, but it was just to great a conversation to leave anything out, so let’s dive into KORE Power’s journey in the US battery market.

What you’ll learn:

• [2:55] What is KORE Power

• [10:45] The need for glocal manufacturing

• [14:40] The challenges to creating a strong ecosystem

• [20:10] Investing in something new

Batteries are playing a role in electrification around the world and manufacturing is growing to meet that demand, both quantitatively and regionally. Manufacturers and innovators like Skeleton Technologies are working to create industry knowledge outside of the traditional centers for battery manufacturing. Digital tools and integrated processes are part of the solution.

In this episode of the Battery Podcast, Marc Deyda sits down with Taavi Madiberk, the CEO and Co-Founder at Skeleton Technologies to talk about battery manufacturing in Europe. They walk through the challenges and successes of growing from a small research lab to what Skeleton Technologies is doing today.

What you'll learn:

• [1:37] Why manufacture batteries in Central Europe?

• [5:03] Making a niche in a growing industry

• [9:13] The role of IoT in successful battery manufacturing

• [18:30] Hardware and software are inseparable