Watch this exclusive conversation with Quanji Cai, a leading expert from Pia Automation, to discuss the latest innovations shaping the battery manufacturing industry.
Contact: Betsy Barry
Communication Manager
706.206.7271
betsy.barry@acculonenergy.com
At the Battery Show 2024, we had the privilege of sitting down with Quanji Cai, a leading expert from Pia Automation, to discuss the latest innovations shaping the battery manufacturing industry. With a wealth of experience in automation solutions, Cai shared insights into the battery industry and how advanced automation technologies are driving safety, efficiency, sustainability, and scalability in product development.
Watch this exclusive conversation with one of the visionaries at the forefront of powering the future!
Video Timestamps
00:00 – 2:44: Introductions
2:25 – 5:46: The Battery Market
5:47 – 7:13: (IRA) Inflation Reduction Act
7:15 – 10:44: Challenges in the Markets
10:45 – 13:20: Other aspects of the Battery Market: Safety, Sustainability, Cost
13:21 – 15:00: Overall Battery Show 2024 Experience
Full Transcript:
Introductions
Betsy Barry: We are at the Battery Show 2024 in Detroit, Michigan. My name is Betsy Barry. I work at Acculon Energy. We are here with one of our strategic partners in their booth: Pia Automation.
Quanji Cai: Yeah, I’m Quanji Cai from Pia Automation. So thank you all for the invitation to the talk. And today I’m going to share our experience in the industry with our partner Acculon Energy.
Cody O’Meara: And I’m Cody O’Meara. I’m one of the technical program managers at Acculon Energy. We’re with Pia Automation to help build out our battery manufacturing.
So Quanji, why don’t you tell us a little bit about that?
Quanji: Yeah, sure. So Pia is a global company, in automation technology, and we have more than sixty years of experience with automation technology. And, we are located in 12 locations, across seven countries, and our business expands energy storage lines, battery and fuel cells, as well as powertrain component management. And, so battery business for us is also new, I think, for you as well.
We stepped into this business five years ago, and at that time we recognized that this market has great potential, which is seen by the global energy transition and also mobility transition. And, since then we started to build up our competence, and now we can manufacture battery lines, like, including modules and packs and components like cell contact systems all over the world, like the U.S. and Europe and Asia. So yeah. Yeah, we have a lot of experience. That’s why we came together. Right? We make a close collaboration so that we can make things made in the US.
Betsy: So that mirrors Acculon’s trajectory a little bit, we are a young company, and we’re just getting into battery manufacturing. We’re getting into the battery manufacturing business a little bit ahead of schedule due to our partnership with Pia. We are focusing on commercial and industrial applications. And we were able to sort of coattail into different markets based on the robust EV market segments. And so we found ourselves getting into battery module and pack design. And now in the first quarter of 2025, we’re going to start our manufacturing journey with Pia.
The Battery Market
Quanji: Right. So, how do you feel about the market of the battery and maybe you can tell us why you decided to step into this market: manufacturing.
Cody: Yeah. So, obviously, the battery industry has been growing a lot. Even if you’re not in the industry yourself, I’m sure you see it on the news, all the stories of the new EV companies that are starting out. So, a few years back, Acculon noticed that shift. We were already doing some projects, related to batteries and decided to form a company, and really focus on that. So, one of the things that we noticed is a lot of companies struggle to draw in talent and resources needed to make that shift to electrification and in particular, Lithium-Ion, even if they were already electrified with lead acid. It’s a different approach, and there are a lot of challenges associated with that.
So, Acculon, we formed to help companies, help work through that transition, not only in the design but also, into the manufactured products, and integrating it into their system.
Quanji: And I think that’s all quite cool because I can tell you now the global market trends and what I saw in the report, we just, analyzed media and we could consult with Germany. So I saw something and it’s quite astonishing: just with, the main idea, you have the market size of the battery and quality cell and module and the pack was in 2020, approximately 22 billion dollars. And actually, in 2030 it’ll go up to 600 billion dollars. So it’s a very huge market.
And if you look at the market share at the moment, the Asian suppliers are still dominant because they have more than 90% of this market share. But we expect actually the market share of the European and North American suppliers that are to grow, simply because, the Asian market becomes more saturated at the moment. And if you see that the electrification penetration rate in China, it’s already up to 50%. And you see business in Europe is average, I think less than 20%. And in North America, if I’m not mistaken, it should be lower than 10%. So you guys really step into the market at a good time because I see a great forecast to break into the battery business.
Yeah. So yeah, maybe we can closely collaborate together and make a great success here. Yeah. And there’s right now a push to bring factories back to the US, reshoring to have domestic products.
Betsy: Exactly. And it’s it’s creating a downstream effect of, having, companies like Acculon and others pay closer attention to supply chains. It’s actually becoming I think, like you said, a good time to be entering into the landscape, especially outside of the EV space.
IRA (Inflation Reduction Act)
Quanji: Exactly. I think this is a very key point because, I think, we, you know, we say the politics drives the market, right? So that this, yeah, I.R.A., the Inflation Reduction Act, I think it’s really hit the domestic manufacturing of electric vehicles as well as batteries. Yeah. So you are like a homegrown supplier for battery products, which is not that much in the US. I think so for you there’s a benefit of course. I saw that the IRA incentives can help you to reduce the cost of battery manufacturing, like up to 30 to 40%.
Betsy: That’s correct.
Quanji: Yeah. So this is a very good chance.
Betsy: That is a part of the IRA. They’re pushing for companies to lean into domestic content so that again, this is shoring up the supply chain. And we find that for a lot of legacy battery companies, it’s a complex landscape, the incentives are. Because we’re new and we’re just kind of homesteading the space, we are working, you know, diligently to see what areas we can take advantage of, like what opportunities there are and what incentives there are. There’s a lot of confusion about the IRA. Yeah. But we are lucky because we’re committed to seeing what’s out there that helps us expedite our manufacturing.
Challenges in the Markets
Quanji: Great. So. Yeah. So what do you see? The main challenges now is and it’s like, let’s say start off in this area: what are the challenges?
Cody: I think Betsy started to hit it on the supply chain is on a very difficult part, there’s so many pieces, you need to control in the supply chain, when you’re in charge of design, I mean, you know, it’s a lot to manage. So you need to think through things that we’ve been working on. That is challenging, and we’ve made some strides over the past couple of years here.
Quanji: Okay, so maybe I can also share our experience in this. industry so since we have been working here [in the US] for five years. We went through a lot of things, you know, the battery business is new for us, but also new for our customers. So we really learned a lot to get to customers that we can closely collaborate with because it’s the only way to success. And like, the customer, you need to look into the customer’s need like, if you see the battery products, what do you care about the battery product? Cost is the first topic. Right? And the second is safety. And also sustainability is a topic we cannot forget, all those things are at work here. And at the end, it’s work to overcome the challenges for us and it’s something new for us.
So for instance you have an example regarding this energy density. So previously we always made the battery module out of cells and the pack out of modules. So this is a very traditional way that we do things. And in order to increase density, now there is a trend that like cell to pack, you just simply, remove the module. Right. And then a lot of the problems will come up during the process, during the production process, because you just simply move the way it’s structured. And then you can put at one time a lot of batteries in one pack, and then, yeah, the result is not that precise anymore and you need to position everything correctly and you need to put a huge cell contact system over the base cells. And then you need to weld all of them with good quality.
So all of those are challenges for us as well. And also another example I can give you is for instance, there’s a customer that would like to reduce that cost. How can we reduce the cost? We need to think about the standard product. Right. If you every time you redesign, it will cost a lot and you work for standardization. What else like, during the project operation the challenges were also great for us because the battery projects are usually very big global projects, which means that you need to the global supply chain and you would need to coordinate all the suppliers worldwide. And you need to use all the companies from the global locations and then the customer probably is located somewhere else. And you need to manufacture here and then locate there. So, for all of this, you need a very excellent global project management skills.
And I think in the end, battery, really as global business and even and I think the key is that, we need to work together and with supplier, with customers and then to be a big picture.
The Battery Industry: Safety, Sustainability, & Cost
Betsy: I completely agree. And I think that now, what I like about this industry is that it is global. But it also feels very small. You know, so I think that there’s a lot of collaboration, which I think is going to propel the industry further, faster. And I also feel like now, whereas before conversations were being led by OEMs and companies seeking to electrify, but now I hear conversations out there in the public domain, talking about things like safety: a big one. And maybe some of the safety messages, you know, I feel like the industry as a whole, we could do a lot to kind of wrest this conversation about safety from like from fear/scare ones and start having a more kind of measured conversation about safety from our perspective. I mean, I feel like, there’s a lot of room there that we could take advantage of. Also, cost is always a big concern. And America, I know is a little bit behind on the sustainability front but I feel like now that is coming more into public conversations as well. So I think that I agree, with safety and sustainability… I’m enjoying seeing these conversations evolve. Things like maybe cost is always at the top but now we have safety conversations, we have sustainability conversations that are balancing out other conversations, which I find really exciting.
Quanji: Yes. I also noticed that regarding the safety topics, it’s not only about the safety of the users. Like, yeah, if we’re they’re [batteries] exploding so, you can avoid it. But it’s also for the production line. So when you produce a battery it’s also important to keep it safe. So for that of course we need to think about all the emergency solutions for the battery.. And so on. Yeah. Yeah. I think we will work together with the EU, about the layout and not just that we can deal with those situations and emergencies.
Betsy: I agree. We start with safety. That’s. Yeah. You know, we think that the environment is now more amenable to that instead of starting with maybe cost.
The Battery Show 2024
Quanji: Yeah how do you find the exhibition tonight or how about yesterday?
Cody: It’s been good. I mean the battery show has a piece of everything in the industry from manufacturing to raw materials, pretty much anything. Anything you can imagine in the industry. They have it here. So, it’s been great walking around. It’s also been great being in our booth and catching up with all of our clients.
Betsy: This is my first year. I don’t have anything to compare it to, but I think that the expo is great. I love the layout. So there’s a lot here. And I just like being able to…I talk to a lot of people on the phone, and I’m enjoying meeting people in person.
Quanji: Yeah, I like this as well. Yeah, I was here last year, so I can talk a little bit about this. This year is, well, better organized than last year. Of course, we have a better space as well, and much more space. Also what I noticed is the conversation with the visitors is much better than last year–I actually notice that that the people who visit us, they have a lot more knowledge about batteries than last year: a very obvious difference.
So in in the sense, we can also see that, yeah, the market is really booming and we’re really starting to work on it.
Betsy: Yeah, I noticed today they’re adding different battery shows for different regions. There’s going to be one in the South.
Quanji: Yeah. So maybe we can meet each other next year in Atlanta? I wish you a good success with the rest of the day. We look forward to working closely.