Stop Buying Lithium Batteries By the Pound

Until now, companies buy lithium batteries like hamburgers — the more weight they get for a dollar, the better.

When compared with regular old dumb batteries, software-defined solutions are more expensive pound-for-pound. So what’s the business case for them?

To answer that question, we must zoom out and consider not only the batteries. We must also consider the total cost of ownership and operational efficiency. 

Let’s use airplanes as an example.

A new big jet from Airbus burns more fuel than an old small jet. But with four times more seats, airlines can halve the fuel used per seat. Plus, there are other benefits, like the universal glass cockpit. Pilots only need to be trained once to fly an Airbus A319, A320, A321, or A320neo.

Sharing a common type rating is a massive operational efficiency and cost savings booster. Some say that this approach made Airbus the dominant global jet maker at the expense of Boeing, which historically did not offer this benefit (it tried with the 787 but didn’t pass muster with the US FAA.) 

Now, back to traditional, hardware-focused custom battery solutions.

They’re like a Boeing jet — product builders have to devise a new solution for every new application. It’s inefficient because:

• You need numerous types of batteries on the shelf to achieve multiple voltages.

• You must redesign the entire solution when you have a product of a different form factor or need to deliver different power outputs.

• You don’t have the data to make the cells work as hard as possible to maximize space and resource usage.

• You can’t easily service the hardware easily, so changing a battery could mean hours, if not days, of downtime.

It’s time to make batteries smarter and more efficient — after all, lithium is an expensive, finite resource, and its production carries significant environmental and social impact.

Tanktwo’s software-defined battery, driven by the Tanktwo Battery Operating System (TBOS), is like Airbus’s universal glass cockpit.

We make universal features (e.g., safety, reliability, and cost-efficiency) suitable for applications and platforms of any size and readily available. Engineers receive training once to use the “kit of parts,” and then they can customize our system for different use cases.

Operators can program TBOS to charge from and deliver any voltage. You can remotely and wirelessly configure a battery’s characteristics with just a few clicks on the computer screen instead of opening up a piece of equipment and switching out the hardware.

Furthermore, they can gain cost-efficiency by stocking one type of battery on the shelf for numerous applications since they can configure the hardware on the fly to meet different requirements. 

The bottom line: We can electrify any equipment and application to realize the potential and promise of electrification at a global scale.