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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https://www.linkedin.com/in/srinivas-popuri-ph-d/

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https://batteryconsultingpartners.com/services/

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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.

Watch and subscribe to The SP Show:
https://www.youtube.com/@sripopuriphd

Connect with Bill Williams:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/billwilliamsevguy/

Connect with Dr Srinivas Popuri:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/srinivas-popuri-ph-d/

Battery Consulting Partners:
https://batteryconsultingpartners.com/

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.