Battery Insiders Reflection - Battery Manufacturing

0:00Transcript

0:00Welcome to Battery Insiders, your podcast providing you insights in the fascinating world of batteries. Hosted by Bhavya Jha and Simon Engelke. And we're back. Welcome back, everybody. How are you, Simon? I'm great. Yeah, having a good day. How about you? Yeah, doing well here. Really enjoyed our conversation just now with Chris about battery manufacturing. Thought he had some interesting thoughts and interesting discussion with some of the folks in our audience. What did you think? Absolutely, yeah. No, I had a good time. It's such a fascinating topic, right? I think it's one of these which is very present. I think many people have been probably seeing it in the news, you know. We're seeing announcements of more and more gigafactories. You know, I mean, the numbers are just incredible to see, you know, just from Europe, but also, of course, in the U.S. and Asia and all around. And, of course, there's still many places where we need more. I mean, India was awesome announcements. And, you know, I think it's just super fascinating.

1:10And it was really nice to have a true expert such as Chris, you know, who has been working this for, I think, about 10 years or so. Really on hands-on, you know, in the manufacturing space. I see many of these things firsthand. And he's also a participant in the BatteryMBA, which, of course, is also nice, you know, to have him there. And, I mean, I'm fortunate to, you know, already have heard him speak there, took a presentation as well on some of these manufacturing challenges. And, yeah, it's just, you know, it's always nice to have someone who has so much expertise who can, of course, in bounds of what he's allowed to say. But, you know, even with that, I think, yeah, lots to learn. So I really enjoyed the session. How about you, Bavia? Yeah, likewise, I, you know, find it when we just, you just mentioned, you know, he's been in the field for 10 plus years. And to me, in some fields, that may not be a lot.

1:57But I feel like in batteries, that means you've seen a lot. And, you know, you're almost like a dinosaur. We used to kind of jokingly call people who had been at Tesla, like, for, like, even just three, four or five years, dinosaurs, because they'd just been there for so long, seen a lot. And, you know, especially with everything that's been changing so fast, it was really, I think, a unique opportunity to hear from someone who's been in this space for that period of time. And has, like, you know, of course, the in-depth and technical knowledge, but just can have, bring perspective on how much has changed and how quickly. And so that was really, that was the interesting part for me. It was almost like, dare I say, like a historian speaking from the archives of this is what, this is how it's all progressed and this is what it was. And so I thought that perspective was really valuable and different maybe from some of our past speakers.

2:53So that was, like, the part that probably resonated or rather spoke to me the most. Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think it's interesting how you say about dinosaurs, but it's very true, right? Just from a, I think, you know, from a, from a, from an experience standpoint, right? I think it's very tough, actually, to have many years under your belt in, you know, in the battery space. Because it's, you know, I mean, same as myself, right? I mean, it could also, it started, I think, about 10 years, probably a bit less. And, you know, thinking back, it wasn't that hot of a topic, right? I mean, for me, it was quite clear it would be, you know, I mean, otherwise I wouldn't have chosen it. For me, it was quite clear it would play a big role. But I think, you know, I mean, we can see now, right? I mean, it's now, finally, you know, people, I think, we do much more aware and the companies are also aware and there's so much need, et cetera.

3:40But suddenly now, where to get all those people from, right? And I think it's a massive challenge in this space. You know, it's something we are quite passionate about, right? With battery associates to really train, you know, these leaders from all around the world. So it's, yeah, it's interesting how you say that. And, yeah, I really enjoyed the conversation. And also, I think quite a few questions as well, which were quite enjoyable from people. Also talking about different chemistries again, you know, how can we produce that? What are some of the challenges? Maybe also with new technologies coming in from solid-state and others. All really interesting topics. So I think it was actually, which is often the case, right? We had a much broader discussion as well on wider topics. But I really like to have all these manufacturing angles in all these different areas as well. Yeah, absolutely. I personally wasn't, did not enter batteries knowing like, ah, this is going to be the hot topic or rather already was.

4:37I kind of stumbled upon it. So it's been a bit, this journey with Battery Insiders and Battery Revolution has been a bit, it's been one that I've reflected on a lot. Because, you know, I happened upon it and then, you know, have now come to realize like, oh, this is like, and everyone else was telling me at the time, like, oh, that's really, that's already like the thing that's going to be the, like, the hot button topic and the set. And of course, that's turned out to be true. But it is, it's, it's a little funny to have these moments throughout this, throughout these past few months where I've just thought, like, how did I end up here? And wow, I'm like, every Saturday I talk to a number of very, very smart, intellectual, technically knowledgeable people about batteries. And yet here I am and just learning so much on the go, which if you've then put into perspective how Chris's story plans out, it's like, okay, wow, that journey continues for like 10 plus years.

5:37And, you know, in very few instances, you have people who have gone really, have been in this much longer than that. So all of that to say that it was super interesting in terms of this perspective. And I think that as far as different types of manufacturing things go, yeah, there were definitely questions on like solid-state and manufacturing methods. I always have questions and thoughts on scale, scalability, of course. And like a little bit of a fun question for me is like, where's next? Where are we going to see manufacturing pop up next? Or where would we like to see it? And of course, how can we make it more feasible to bring this technology and manufacturing to global south countries in a more sustainable way? So those were like a few of my takeaways from our conversation on Saturday as well. Totally. And I think it's an interesting, you know, reflection as well, because I think, you know, I mean, there's going to be so many more people maybe listening to this.

6:43You know, some people might be, you know, people in the battery field, right? Like, you know, people like Chris have been working on this for a while, but there also might be other people, you know, like you have never really thought about this before, you know, in that detail. But then kind of realize actually this is a nice opportunity and maybe just an open invitation, right? For anybody who's interested in listening, you know, to really explore this further, right? Because I think one amazing thing around batteries and electrification, you know, and you know where energy is and other storage technologies such hydrogen, et cetera. It just is such a broad area and such a, you know, multidisciplinary area as well, where I'm pretty certain most backgrounds in some way can be used, right? I mean, there are going to be, you know, some more challenges, but for example, give example, like chemistry can often feel like cooking, right? And producing, like, you know, batteries can be like paper, you know, production and printing and all these different things.

7:33And there's so many parallels we see, you know, and I think we need so much talent in the space that it's really one of these nice opportunities to, you know, to explore as well. You know, if there's something else, you know, how you can be active in it. And I think it's just an open invitation. It doesn't matter if your background is in oil and gas or is it in automotive or is it in, you know, aerospace engineering or whatever it might be. You know, I think I'm pretty certain there's definitely skills people have they can, you know, use in this area as well. If you, if you motivate and want to do it. Absolutely. I can, I can attest to that. But yeah, I think it's, yeah, it's always going to be, it's definitely a very diverse field for how much we just talk only about batteries. Every single time we talk about batteries, you can't not talk about the manufacturing, the operations, the social issues aspects, the social issues that are intertwined with batteries.

8:34Of course, climate change, of course, environmental sustainability, et cetera, et cetera. So I find that once I get people talking about it or rather maybe just a little curious about what I do and they ask all of those questions, like, so what exactly do you do, et cetera? I'm always like, well, what you do actually could tie into this in X, Y and Z ways. So it is definitely, it's turned into a conversation for me, not just about batteries and my own interests, but also making it something that others can connect with as well. Which I guess is what this podcast also does. So hopefully our readers feel the same way. Yeah. Yeah. You know, some people might be, you know, transcribing and seeing that, but yeah, it's, it's true. And I think maybe that's just one, you know, reflection also at the end. One is, you know, very fortunate, you know, to actually meet some people listening to this recently, which is nice. I mean, of course, some of you, you know, we met through Clubhouse already, but there's also quite a few, you know, who are, who are listening into this podcast and they're not in these sessions.

9:40So thanks, you know, for, for following us, that's really always encouraging, but also, you know, if you, if you want to reach out, you know, it's, we always love to hear from you. Definitely have heard, heard from a few people last week. So really enjoyed that and hear your thoughts and perspectives. We also have some people suggesting our speakers. So, you know, for example, I think we had some suggestions for, for taking some future ones and I'm very excited. Actually, we have one of them confirmed for August, James Frith from Bloomberg or BNF, which is a, you know, incredible, knowledgeable person on all kinds of batteries. And yeah, so, you know, we also take it serious. So if you have any suggestions who we should bring on, on Clubhouse and on these podcasts, please let us know. We're happy to approach them, you know, and then we can learn all of, from, from all sides. We can learn from them. And maybe one last thing, if you listen to this on Apple podcast, I think you can give us reviews.

10:31And I think it's something exciting. I heard it helps our algorithm, you know, we want to spread it out there. I think we already listed quite high in some of these platforms, but please help us to, you know, spread the word even wider. So if you hit on this and there's a way to rate or give comments or feedback, et cetera, please do so and help us to spread the word. That's fantastic. And very excited to hear from our speaker in August. What, do we have anything lined up for next week? I don't think so. So it's going to be interesting. Well, listeners come through. Sure something will turn up. Absolutely. And we will see you all next week there with our surprise speaker. See you then. Bye-bye. Ciao.