Latest news with #BreatheBatteryTechnologies
TechCrunch
07-05-2025
- Automotive
- TechCrunch
Breathe lands $21M Series B to predict battery performance
Few markets are moving as rapidly as China's automotive sector. There, new models are rolled out in as little as 18 months, putting tremendous pressure on legacy Western automakers, which need four-plus years to go from concept to sales floor. 'With the increasingly short development cycles in China, it's driving a huge amount of cost and time focus,' Ian Campbell, co-founder and CEO of Breathe Battery Technologies, told TechCrunch. 'In both geographies, in the East — in China and Asia — and in the West as well.' Much of that focus has been centered around batteries — the components that can make or break electric vehicle sales. Automakers are forced to predict where the market will be a few years out, but those forecasts don't always pan out given how quickly the EV landscape is evolving. Making changes to physical components can be expensive and unpredictable, which is why Campbell's startup has been trying to give batteries more flexibility via software. Breathe has developed a suite of tools that Campbell said helps automakers and others get the most out of their batteries. The startup recently raised a $21 million Series B led by Kinnevik Online AB, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. Lowercarbon Capital and Volvo Cars Tech Fund participated. The new funding will help Breathe continue to push its software earlier in the battery development process. The company currently has four products: Design, Model, Map, and Charge. Charge was Breathe's first offering, and it optimized charging strategies to speed refilling or increase the longevity of a battery. Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | BOOK NOW Though battery manufacturing is tightly controlled, no two cells that roll of the line are 100% identical. As a result, some might generate more heat during fast charging, while others might be able to withstand more charge and discharge cycles than their peers. Chinese mobile phone maker Oppo was the first to adopt it, and the software cut charging time by 27%. On the automotive side, Volvo has Breathe's code installed on its forthcoming ES90 sedan, helping it to charge 10% to 80% in 20 minutes. In essence, Breathe's software lets them make the most of each cell given its individual quirks. The startup's other offerings help automakers and electronics companies design and predict how their batteries will perform years down the line, letting them determine where to invest development resources. For example, if a new chemistry is lower cost and looks to have a longer lifespan, then designers may decide to let it charge a little faster at the expense of some of that longevity. 'They want to understand what room they have and what will happen when they make trade offs throughout the development program of their battery system,' Campbell said. To do that, Breathe has built a lab in London where it can run a range of tests on batteries its customers are interested in using. In as little as four weeks, it has enough to ship the customer a model (called Breathe Model) that can simulate likely future performance. After that, the cells stay on in the lab, contributing more data so that Breathe can eventually ship the customer its Map product, which augments simulated data with more real world results, Campbell said. The Design product will round out the suite when its released in the coming months, providing a customers with set of software tools to speed — you guessed it — battery design. The goal is to reduce the amount of 'brute force lab testing' needed to bring a battery to market, Campbell said. He likens Breathe's software tools to those used in the semiconductor industry, which have helped companies like Apple and Nvidia work closely with foundries like TSMC to implement their processor designs in silicon. 'We want to try and do for batteries what we've seen the simulation software from Cadence and Synopsis do so effectively in semiconductor design,' he said.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Volvo's sleek ES90 is a fast-charging, long-range traveler
STOCKHOLM — The Volvo ES90 will charge faster and go farther than any electric vehicle in the automaker's lineup. It will also be the sleekest Volvo in the company's nearly 100-year history. Volvo said the ES90 full-electric large premium car blends characteristics from three vehicle types: the elegance of a sedan, the flexibility of a fastback as well as the spaciousness and higher ground clearance of an SUV. By catering to all three, Volvo says the ES90 'carves out a new space for itself' putting the car 'in a class of its own.' When asked about the risks of trying to be three things at once, Volvo Chief Product and Strategy Officer Erik Severinson recognized the potential dilemma. 'Is it a car for everyone or a car for no one?' he said when considering the question. 'I think we have found a really good balance,' he told Automotive News Europe. 'Design-wise, we managed to keep it in a package that is appealing to sedan customers as well as a crossover or fastback customers. The ES90's proportions translate into a drag coefficient (Cd) of 0.25, which is the best ever for an automaker. By comparison, the Porsche Taycan full-electric luxury sedan has a Cd rating of 0.22 (the lower number the better the aerodynamics). Sign up for the Automotive News Europe Focus on Electrification newsletter, a weekly wrap-up of the latest electric vehicle news, including interviews and global EV sales data. As a result, Volvo says the ES90 will have a driving range of up to 700 km (435 miles) under the WLTP testing cycle — and it will charge from 10 to 80 percent in just 20 minutes, using a 350-kilowatt fast-charging station. That is a 30 percent improvement over Volvo's flagship electric SUV, the EX90, which was launched last year and rides on the same SPA2 architecture. The upgrade is partly because of the integration of adaptive charging software from Breathe Battery Technologies. Volvo is the first automaker to get access to the British startup's patented algorithm-enabled charging software, Breathe Charge. The ES90 is also the first Volvo that can add 300 km [186 miles] of range in just 10 minutes. That is up from about 180 km in 10 minutes with the 400-volt system Volvo offers on the rest of its EVs. By comparison, the Porsche Taycan can add 315 km of range in 10 minutes using a fast-charging station that offers at least 320 kW of power. Along with the Taycan, the ES90's rivals will include the electric BMW i5 and Mercedes-Benz EQE, neither of which offer 800-volt charging. Vehicles that have 800-volt charging capability include the Tesla Cybertruck, Lotus Eletre and Emeya, Audi E-tron GT, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6. Order books are open for ES90 in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K. More markets will follow. The car will start at €71,990 in Germany. Volvo will build the ES90 at its factory in Chengdu, China, where it also makes the EX90 electric flagship SUV. Production is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of this year. Deliveries will begin in the fourth quarter of this year and continue into the first quarter of 2026. Severinson expects China to account for a leading percentage the ES90's sales, but he declined to give a percentage figure. He expects the U.K. to be another key market because there are no additional tariffs on cars built in China and solid in the country. Volvo's China-built cars sold in the European Union are subject to the bloc's new higher tariff regime for Chinese BEVs. For Volvo, the tariff is 28.8 percent, comprising the EU's usual 10 percent import duty plus an extra 18.8 percent charge meant to offset the Chinese government's subsidies to EV makers. Severinson said Volvo realizes that it can't pass along that entirety of the tariffs to customers, however, since it competes in the premium segment it has more wiggle room on price than a mass market automaker, but flexibility is highly dependent on the market. Severinson said Volvo is evaluating whether to sell the ES90 in the U.S., where China-made cars face a tariff of 20 percent after the Trump administration imposed a 10 percent duty on Chinese imports on top of the 10 percent import tax it implemented in February. CEO Jim Rowan said the ES90 underlines Volvo's position as 'an industry leader in software-defined cars that harness the power of core computing.' The ES90 is the first Volvo with a centralized system powered by a dual Nvidia Drive AGX Orin configuration capable of more than 500 trillion operations per second. When Nvidia debuted Drive AGX Orin in 2019, it said the system-on-chip was developed to enable scaling from Level 2 advanced driver assistance to Level 5 full-autonomous driving. The ES90's safety system includes seven cameras, five radars, 12 ultrasonic sensors and a lidar, which work together to help the driver avoid collisions. Inside, the ES90 is equipped to make the rear-seat passengers as cozy as possible. The car's long wheelbase of 3100 mm meters – more than 10 feet – provides generous legroom for the rear passengers. People riding in the back also have power seats that can recline or be made warmer or cooler. The ES90's electrochromic panoramic roof lets plenty of natural light enter the cabin while providing nearly 100 percent protection from ultraviolet rays. In addition, with a touch of a button the transparency of the glass can be adjusted to increase or decrease sunlight The ES90 will compete in Europe's large premium segment, which after the first month of 2025 was led by the BMW 5 Series, followed by the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and Audi A6. The top-selling full-electric cars in the segment is the BMW i5, followed by the Mercedes EQE and the Audi E-tron. All three EVs are ahead of the combined sales of the Volvo S90 and V90 sedan and station wagon. After one month, large premium sales were up 29 percent to 16,008, according to market researcher Dataforce. In 2024, large premium sales rose 9.5 percent to 188,262, led by the A6, followed by the E-Class and 5 Series. Combined sales of the S90 and V90 dropped 25 percent to 8,335, according to Dataforce. In the U.S., the S90 is in the large luxury segment, where it finished 2024 in fourth place behind the BMW 7 Series, Mercedes S Class and Lexus LS. Sales of the S90 fell 6.5 percent to 1,896 last year, according to the Automotive News Data Center. Sales for the segment were down 7.5 percent to 28,288. Vehicles that have 800-volt charging capability include the Tesla Cybertruck, Lotus Eletre and Emeya, Audi E-tron GT, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6. The ES90 is Volvo's first full-electric luxury sedan. It shares the automaker's SPA2 underpinnings with the EX90 flagship electric SUV. The ES90 and EX90 are the only models planned to use the company's SPA2 platform as Volvo will switch to the third generation of the architecture, SPA3, starting in 2026 with the EX60 midsize SUV. The ES90 is the sixth full electric model in Volvo's range. The others are the EX90, EM90 luxury van, EX30 small SUV, EX40 compact SUV and the EC40 compact crossover. Volvo's electric models all start with an 'E' to distinguish them from combustion models, which start with XC for SUVs, S for sedans and V for station wagons. Volvo previously aimed to be an electric-only brand by 2030, but last September it adjusted those plans, saying that battery-electric and plug-in hybrid cars would account for at least 90 percent of its sales by then. The remainder will be mild hybrids, which mostly rely on a combustion engine. The ES90 luxury sedan is 5000 mm long, 1942 mm wide, 1547 mm tall with a wheelbase of 3102 mm and a maximum ground clearance of 184 mm The ES90 will offer three electric powertrains: single motor, twin motor and twin motor performance. The Single Motor, which is rear-wheel drive, offers 245 kilowatts, which is 329 hp. The maximum torque is 480 newton meters (354 pounds-feet). It can go 0 to 100 (62 mph) in 6.9 seconds and add 275 km of range in 10 minutes on a fast charger of at least 350 kW. This variant has a 92-kilowatt-hour, CATL-sourced lithium-ion battery. This variant has a WLTP range of 650 km. The Twin Motor, which is all-wheel drive, offers a 333 kW (442 hp) and 670 newton meters (494 pounds-feet) of torque. It can go 0-100 kph in 5.5 seconds and add 300 km in 10 minutes on a fast charger. It has a 106-kWh battery from CALT. The range is 700 km on a single charge, according to WLTP. The Twin Motor Performance drivetrain offers 500 kW of power (670 hp) and 870 newton meters (635 pounds-feet) of torque. It can accelerate from 0 to 100 kph in 4 seconds and add 300 km in 10 minutes on a fast charger. It has a 106-kWh battery from CALT. The WLTP range is 700 km. The Volvo ES90 will charge faster and go farther than any electric vehicle in the automaker's lineup.
