The SP Show

Electric vehicles built the modern battery industry. But will they remain its largest growth market?

In this episode of The SP Show, Dr. Srinivas Popuri speaks with Bill Williams, Global Business Development Director at Baltimore Aircoil Company and an EV and battery industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience.

Bill began working with street-legal electric vehicles in the 1990s, later sold workplace chargers to Elon Musk’s SpaceX team and now supports cooling infrastructure for battery gigafactories and data centres worldwide.

The conversation explores:

• Why EV charging infrastructure repeatedly gets built in the wrong places
• How Bill sold SpaceX 30 chargers when the original request was for six
• Whether government incentives have sometimes delayed EV adoption
• Why gigafactories fail even after raising billions
• How water, cooling and energy affect battery-manufacturing economics
• Why CAPEX gets attention while long-term OPEX is underestimated
• What battery factories can learn from AI data-centre development
• Why energy storage, robotics, aviation, mining and marine applications could drive the next battery boom
• Why there will never be one “magic” battery chemistry for every application

This is a candid conversation about what it actually takes to build, finance and operate the infrastructure behind electrification.

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The Next Battery Boom Won’t Come From Electric Cars | Bill Williams | Trailer

Welcome to The SP Show, featuring candid conversations with the scientists, executives and operators shaping batteries, energy storage, electric mobility and industrial manufacturing.

Electric vehicles have driven battery demand for more than a decade. But the next major growth phase could come from AI data centres, stationary energy storage, robotics, aviation and industrial electrification.

In this trailer, Dr Srinivas Popuri speaks with Bill Williams, an EV industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience and Global Director of Business Development at BAC.

Bill entered electric mobility in 1994, long before Tesla and modern lithium-ion EVs became mainstream. His career has taken him from street-legal electric golf carts and charging infrastructure to commercial fleets, SpaceX and major battery manufacturing projects.

Inside the full conversation:

• How Bill turned SpaceX’s request for six EV chargers into 30
• Why some government incentives produced poorly planned charging infrastructure
• Why gigafactories can fail despite raising billions
• How cooling, water, electricity and operating costs affect battery manufacturing
• Why AI data centres could create substantial energy-storage demand
• Why no single “magic bullet” battery chemistry will serve every application

The next battery boom may be driven by far more than electric cars.

🎙️ The full episode launches Tuesday, 20 October at 12:00 noon UK time.

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Connect with Bill Williams:
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Battery Consulting Partners:
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Europe has developed world-class clean technology. So why is it still losing industrial ground to China and the United States?

Maurits van Tol, former Group CTO and CEO of Johnson Matthey Catalyst Technologies, argues that Europe’s biggest problem is no longer invention. It is execution, investment and the ability to deploy technology at competitive scale.

Drawing on three decades across chemicals, materials, plastics recycling and clean technology, Maurits discusses:

• Why Europe’s share of global chemical production has fallen
• Why brilliant clean-tech companies still fail
• What Europe can learn from China’s industrial strategy
• The difficult economics of plastics recycling
• Where hydrogen and nuclear energy could fit
• How AI may reshape chemical manufacturing and innovation
• What strong leadership looks like during uncertainty and failure

The conversation moves beyond technology to examine the capital, partnerships, policy and leadership required to build industries that can survive in the real world.

Is Europe already entering industrial decline?

Maurits van Tol, former CEO of Johnson Matthey Catalyst Technologies, explains why Europe’s clean-tech challenge is no longer simply about developing better technology. It is about execution, investment and scaling industrial capacity before global competitors move further ahead.

In this trailer, Maurits discusses Europe’s declining share of global chemical production, China’s ability to execute long-term industrial strategies, why brilliant clean-tech companies still fail and why AI may be overhyped today but underestimated for the future.

The full episode of The SP Show will be released on 6 October at 10:00 AM UK time.

Why do we keep treating batteries primarily as a chemistry problem?

Professor Daniel Auger, Professor of Electrification at Cranfield University, argues that a battery’s real-world performance depends on the complete system, including software, sensors, thermal management, power electronics and the way the battery is used.

In this conversation, we explore why EV battery life remains difficult to predict, how battery-management systems affect usable capacity and safety, and what second-hand EV buyers need to know about battery health.

Professor Auger also discusses the prospects for lithium-sulfur, lithium-air, sodium-ion and solid-state batteries; an experiment that detected induced thermal runaway approximately 15 minutes before it occurred; and why strong battery companies often fail because of finance rather than technology.

A grounded discussion about what it takes to move battery innovation from promising chemistry to reliable real-world systems.

Can battery fires be detected before they become catastrophic?

Professor Daniel Auger explains how novel sensors have consistently detected signs of thermal runaway around 15 minutes before it occurs.

In the full episode, we explore why batteries are not solely a chemistry problem, the limitations of battery-life prediction, lithium-sulfur technology, safety, system design and why promising battery companies fail.

The full conversation launches Tuesday, 22 September at 10:00 AM UK time on The SP Show.

Watch and subscribe:
https://www.youtube.com/@sripopuriphd

Can battery fires be detected before they become catastrophic?

Professor Daniel Auger explains how novel sensors have consistently detected signs of thermal runaway around 15 minutes before it occurs.

In the full episode, we explore why batteries are not solely a chemistry problem, the limitations of battery-life prediction, lithium-sulfur technology, safety, system design and why promising battery companies fail.

The full conversation launches Tuesday, 22 September at 10:00 AM UK time on The SP Show.

Watch and subscribe:
https://www.youtube.com/@sripopuriphd

China dominates much of today's lithium-ion battery supply chain and has become the world's largest electric vehicle market and manufacturing base. But can that advantage last?

Joe Lowry has spent four decades in the lithium industry and watched the global battery supply chain evolve first-hand.

In this episode of The SP Show, we discuss how China built its position in lithium, batteries and EVs, why Europe and the US fell behind, and whether the rest of the world can realistically build competitive battery supply chains.

Joe also shares insights from his career and his book, Lithium Confidential, alongside his views on lithium markets, battery manufacturing, industrial policy and where the global battery industry goes next.

A no-hype conversation about China, lithium and the future of the battery industry.

China now dominates electric vehicles, batteries and much of the lithium-ion supply chain. But how did Western companies allow that to happen, and is China’s lead now impossible to challenge?

I wanted to explore these questions with someone who has witnessed the lithium industry’s development from the inside.

Joe Lowry, widely known as “Mr. Lithium,” has spent four decades working across the global lithium industry. His career has taken him across five continents, including years working directly in Japan and China as Asia’s battery supply chain began to take shape.

Also his podcast, listened to in more than 190 countries, and the author of Lithium Confidential.

In the full episode, we discuss:

• Why Joe believes Germany may not have a significant automotive industry within ten years

• How Western executives underestimated BYD and China’s battery industry

• Why the United States should consider allowing Chinese EVs through forced joint ventures

• Whether Ford, GM and Volkswagen can remain globally relevant

• How Tesla accelerated the EV transition but lost its position as the undisputed leader

• Why Joe considers sodium-ion batteries a distraction outside specific applications

• Whether China has permanently won the battery and EV race

• Joe’s four-decade lithium journey and the personal obstacles he overcame along the way

This is a candid conversation about lithium, China, electric vehicles and the decisions that reshaped the global automotive industry.

The full episode premieres on Tuesday, 1 September at 10:00 am UK time.

Watch on YouTube and listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music.

In this episode of The SP Show, Sri Popuri speaks with Dr Sathiya Mariyappan, CNRS Researcher at Collège de France, about the science, commercial reality and future of sodium-ion batteries.

Sathiya explains why sodium-ion isn't simply a cheaper alternative to lithium-ion, and where its real advantages could emerge, including high-power applications, low-temperature performance, energy storage and AI data centres.

The conversation goes deep into hard carbon anodes, NVP and NVPF cathodes, layered and polyanionic materials, electrolytes, battery interfaces and anionic redox. Sathiya explains how her work helped establish reversible anionic redox and why scientifically exciting battery materials do not always translate into commercially successful cells.

They also discuss why Europe remains behind China in battery manufacturing, whether Europe could lose the sodium-ion race as well, India's opportunity in battery manufacturing, the challenges of scaling research into real products, Sathiya's scepticism around current solid-state battery approaches, and how AI is changing scientific research.

Sathiya also shares her personal journey from a small village in India to battery research at one of France's leading scientific institutions.

A conversation about much more than sodium-ion: how battery technologies actually move from scientific discovery to industrial reality.

The SP Show explores batteries, EVs, energy, AI infrastructure and the industries and investments shaping their future.