All batteries degrade over time. For automakers, fleet managers and other companies, the crux \u2014 and key to profitability \u2014 is knowing when they will.
\nBut it\u2019s surprisingly difficult to understand the health and status of a battery without extensive and expensive testing, which isn\u2019t always possible once a battery is in a vehicle. German battery analytics software company Twaice has been taking aim at this problem since its founding in 2018, and it announced Wednesday that it has raised $26 million in Series B funding led by Chicago-based Energize Ventures. The company, which primarily works in the mobility and energy storage industries, now has a total financing of $45 million.
\n\u201cWe started Twaice with the focus on building a battery analytics platform which really covers the whole lifecycle of battery systems,\u201d company co-founder Stephan Rohr told TechCrunch, including the development and operational phases. The company has launched tools that are suited for the design and development phase and when the battery is actually in a vehicle or energy storage system. Audi, Daimler and Hero Motors are some of its customers.
\nThe company intends to use this fresh round of funding to expand its European commercial footprint and possibly into the United States. It also wants to build even more use cases on top of its analytics platform \u2013 for example, working with fleet providers, rather than only the manufacturers.
\nOne of the company\u2019s innovations is a concept of a \u201cdigital twin,\u201d or a simulation model of the battery system that runs in Twaice\u2019s cloud platform. The company continually updates the parameters of the \u2018twin\u2019 so that it reflects the behavior of the actual battery, down to its thermal characteristics, electrical behavior and degradation. That means companies that operate a fleet of EV buses can monitor the state of the battery packs of each of their vehicles.
\n\u201cIt enables not just a focus on the current health of the battery system, but also it enables us to simulate and forecast the future,\u201d Rohr said.
\nTwaice also offers solutions before the battery even enters the vehicle or energy storage system. \u201cBattery design engineers use our simulations to reduce the testing effort [. . .] assess charging strategies, assess depth of discharge, assess different cell chemistries,\u201d Rohr explained.
\nOne major use case for Twaice\u2019s software is for warranty tracking and safety risks. Using battery analytics OEMs can understand where exactly the battery failed, whether in the cell or the module, for example, and also gain valuable data on future warranty claims based on previous data. Warranties are huge risks for OEMs, Lennart Hinrichs, Twaice\u2019s commercial director explained to TechCrunch, in part because batteries are so complex and difficult to understand once they\u2019re in a vehicle.
\nBut having a grasp on the battery\u2019s life could come in handy for consumers as well. Twaice has partnered with T\u00dcV Rheinland, a testing and certification institute in Germany that\u2019s working on EV resale in the private market. It could eventually lead the way to a standard assessment process for batteries on the resale market.
\nOnce the battery is no longer suited for its first life application, companies can use Twaice\u2019s software to assess the remaining life and health of the battery system and determine whether it\u2019s fit for a second-life purpose or if it should go straight to recycling.
\nTwaice\u2019s previous funding round in March 2020 was led by early-stage venture capital firm Creandum, with additional participation from existing investors UVC Partners, Cherry Ventures and Speedinvest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
All batteries degrade over time. For automakers, fleet managers and other companies, the crux \u2014 and key to profitability \u2014 is knowing when they will. But it\u2019s surprisingly difficult to understand the health and status of a battery without extensive and expensive testing, which isn\u2019t always possible once a battery is in a vehicle. German […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":138480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-138479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fleet-managers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gotrucking.news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}