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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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:
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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.

Is Europe already entering industrial decline?

Maurits van Tol, former CEO of Johnson Matthey Catalyst Technologies, explains why Europe’s clean-tech challenge is no longer simply about developing better technology. It is about execution, investment and scaling industrial capacity before global competitors move further ahead.

In this trailer, Maurits discusses Europe’s declining share of global chemical production, China’s ability to execute long-term industrial strategies, why brilliant clean-tech companies still fail and why AI may be overhyped today but underestimated for the future.

The full episode of The SP Show will be released on 6 October at 10:00 AM UK time.

Why do we keep treating batteries primarily as a chemistry problem?

Professor Daniel Auger, Professor of Electrification at Cranfield University, argues that a battery’s real-world performance depends on the complete system, including software, sensors, thermal management, power electronics and the way the battery is used.

In this conversation, we explore why EV battery life remains difficult to predict, how battery-management systems affect usable capacity and safety, and what second-hand EV buyers need to know about battery health.

Professor Auger also discusses the prospects for lithium-sulfur, lithium-air, sodium-ion and solid-state batteries; an experiment that detected induced thermal runaway approximately 15 minutes before it occurred; and why strong battery companies often fail because of finance rather than technology.

A grounded discussion about what it takes to move battery innovation from promising chemistry to reliable real-world systems.

Can battery fires be detected before they become catastrophic?

Professor Daniel Auger explains how novel sensors have consistently detected signs of thermal runaway around 15 minutes before it occurs.

In the full episode, we explore why batteries are not solely a chemistry problem, the limitations of battery-life prediction, lithium-sulfur technology, safety, system design and why promising battery companies fail.

The full conversation launches Tuesday, 22 September at 10:00 AM UK time on The SP Show.

Watch and subscribe:
https://www.youtube.com/@sripopuriphd

Can battery fires be detected before they become catastrophic?

Professor Daniel Auger explains how novel sensors have consistently detected signs of thermal runaway around 15 minutes before it occurs.

In the full episode, we explore why batteries are not solely a chemistry problem, the limitations of battery-life prediction, lithium-sulfur technology, safety, system design and why promising battery companies fail.

The full conversation launches Tuesday, 22 September at 10:00 AM UK time on The SP Show.

Watch and subscribe:
https://www.youtube.com/@sripopuriphd

China dominates much of today's lithium-ion battery supply chain and has become the world's largest electric vehicle market and manufacturing base. But can that advantage last?

Joe Lowry has spent four decades in the lithium industry and watched the global battery supply chain evolve first-hand.

In this episode of The SP Show, we discuss how China built its position in lithium, batteries and EVs, why Europe and the US fell behind, and whether the rest of the world can realistically build competitive battery supply chains.

Joe also shares insights from his career and his book, Lithium Confidential, alongside his views on lithium markets, battery manufacturing, industrial policy and where the global battery industry goes next.

A no-hype conversation about China, lithium and the future of the battery industry.