As energy densities increase to meet the range and runtime demanded of modern products, electrodes face rising stress during charging. The very progress that makes batteries more capable also makes their control more critical.

At Breathe, we see that challenge as worth solving. Chemistry and cell design define what’s possible, but software decides how close you can get to those limits while remaining healthy and safe. Making fast charging better means more than saving time. It makes electrification effortless, desirable, and scalable. 

The unseen bottleneck

Every battery has limits, but the real limitation isn’t always where we think it is. 

In most systems today, charging is governed by what we can measure and estimate: voltage, current, temperature, and state of charge. Those are important signals, but they don’t tell the full story. They describe what’s happening at the surface and terminals, not what’s happening inside the cell. 

Deep within each electrode, lithium moves and redistributes. Those microscopic dynamics determine how safely and quickly a battery can charge. While internal states can be studied during development using models and experiments, they can’t be observed directly during operation. Each charging session is unique, so engineers set broad safety limits to cover every possible scenario. 

That’s why conventional charging often feels unbalanced. Sometimes it’s too aggressive when the cell isn’t ready; other times, it holds back when the cell could go faster without compromising health, and of course safety. Without visibility into what’s happening inside a cell, control systems struggle to strike that balance. 

At Breathe, we saw that as an opportunity. If you can estimate a battery’s electrochemical states in real time, on-device, you can control it with more precision. You can replace static charge profiles with dynamic, physics-based decisions that extract more performance safely. 

That realisation became the foundation for Breathe Charge. A charging approach built not on assumptions, but on understanding. 

Watch the proof: Fast charging without compromise.
See how Volvo and Breathe are redefining what “ultra-fast” really means - reliable, adaptive, and proven in the real world.

Explore the full story of how our partnership with Volvo Cars brought adaptive charging to life in the new ES90: Read the announcement.

The shift from static profile to real-time control 

With Breathe Charge, we embed physics-based estimators into the Battery Management System (BMS). Every second, it estimates internal states such as anode potential and cathode overpotential: the true indicators of how fast a battery can charge, while remaining healthy. With that visibility, it adjusts the charging current dynamically, in real time. Rather than a static charge curve, you get closed-loop control that adapts to every cell in your system, responding to its temperature, state of charge, and ageing pathway in real time. 

Because the software: 

• estimates internal states such as anode potential and cathode overpotential. 

• dynamically adjusts charging current to stay within optimal margins, second by second. 

• inherently adapts across ageing, cell-to-cell variation and temperature changes. 

• meets the industry’s high standards with a successful ASPICE Level 2 assessment.

 Fast becomes stable, because the system adjusts in real time to the unique behaviour of each cell. 

Engineering for the real world 

We designed Breathe Charge to be as seamless and easy to adopt as possible. That’s why it’s embedded software that works with your existing sensors, estimators, and battery cells, no new hardware needed. 

Onboard compute is in high demand. The modern software-defined vehicle requires memory and compute cycles, while new AI features customers love, place a further demand. So, Breathe Charge is designed with the smallest possible footprint. Even when running over 160 instances of its physics-based estimator on a modern 800V EV pack, it only requires 35 kB of RAM, 40 kB of ROM, and 0.5 kB of Non-Volatile Memory (NVM), for example. It’s fully compliant with industry quality standards and scalable across chemistries, cell formats, and pack architectures. 

So far, we’ve parameterised more than 75 cell types, from sub-20 mAh cells to over 200 Ah, covering LCO, NMC, LFP, silicon-graphite and pure graphite chemistries. That diversity ensures our control models perform not just in the lab, but in production. 

From smartphones with OPPO, to electric vehicles with Volvo, and now to premium audio with Bang & Olufsen, Breathe Charge is proving that fast charging can be achieved without compromise across industries, form factors and chemistries alike. 

Where speed meets control

Fast charging fails when control is coarse. It succeeds when control is precise. By working at the level of internal electrochemical states, Breathe Charge ensures that every milliamp is purposeful.  

For engineers and product teams, that precision delivers tangible advantages: 

• Safely unlocks untapped performance by managing current through physics-based estimation, improving both headline metrics and everyday user experience. 

• Provides the flexibility to adapt charging strategies late in development as performance targets or hardware evolve, without leaving capability unused. 

• Delivers the same fast-charging performance as hardware upgrades at a fraction of the cost, reshaping how you work with suppliers and accelerating development. 

It’s a different way of thinking about charging - one where speed and safety reinforce each other. 

The next step 

Breathe Charge makes fast charging a capability, not a compromise. It works deep within your system, tuned to your cells, responsive to every condition, proven in the real world. 

Breathe Charge is already on the road today, powering the next generation of electric vehicles. And there’s more to come. 

Stay tuned as new launches arrive, built on the same physics-based control that makes fast charging stable. 

Learn why fast charging doesn't mean fragile batteries.

Dive deeper into the physics-based control that makes adaptive charging both faster and safer.

The best products do not just impress on day one. They stay exceptional every time you use them. 

With the new Beo Grace earbuds, Bang & Olufsen extends that standard of quality all the way to the battery. 

At Breathe, we have partnered with Bang & Olufsen to integrate our adaptive charging software, Breathe Charge, into Beo Grace. In internal testing, the earbuds delivered more than 2,000 charging cycles, around four times the typical lifespan of wireless earbuds. 

When batteries last, products stay exceptional, users stay delighted, and fewer resources go to waste. That is luxury built to endure. 

Battery performance, by design 

Traditional charging relies on static tables, a one size fits all approach that does not reflect the way batteries really behave. As batteries age, those fixed rules create a damaging feedback loop, charging them in ways that accelerate wear and shorten their life. 

Breathe Charge takes a different approach. Using real time physics-based modelling, it monitors electrode potentials and internal states of the battery second by second, adjusting the charging current at every moment. That precision prevents lithium plating, the silent culprit behind capacity fade, and protects the battery’s long term health. 

In simple terms: the battery learns and adapts as you do, extending service life without compromising safety or performance. 

A collaboration built on craft and control

Bang & Olufsen has always set the standard for sound and design. By integrating adaptive charging, Beo Grace brings the same attention to detail to the battery, ensuring the listening experience stays at its best, charge after charge. 

This collaboration brings together more than a century of audio craftsmanship with the science of software defined batteries. 

A shift that’s happening fast 

From smartphones with OPPO, to electric vehicles with Volvo, and now to premium audio with Bang & Olufsen, leading companies are recognising that software is becoming a key differentiator in battery performance. 

The Beo Grace earbuds will be available from 17 November 2025. And for the people who choose them, their battery will be ready to perform long into the future. 

Batteries power the products that move us, connect us, and shape our future.
But the way we design them has not kept pace with the urgency of our ambitions.

Sony commercialised the first lithium-ion rechargeable battery cell in 1991. Thirty-four years later, cell development is still locked in cycles of trial and error. Iterations happen in laboratories. R&D lines, testing, data processing, and communicating results all take months for a single loop.

Critical data and expertise remain behind supplier walls and silo-ed teams. And if you are buying cells from a supplier, you are often a passenger in the process, watching from the side lines as choices are made that will define your product’s performance for years.

What happens when you can step into the driver’s seat?
What happens when you can answer the big design questions yourself in minutes, not months?

From passive to proactive

In traditional development, even the most capable battery teams are constrained. You can model a pack. You can tweak your BMS. But the cell itself, the beating heart of your system, is a black box. You get datasheets. You run your own tests. And you wait.

Meanwhile, variability between batches, changes in production lines, and shifts in supplier priorities create uncertainty. That uncertainty is risk. And when timelines are tight, risk means delays, redesigns, and missed opportunities.

This creates an imbalance of influence and objective. A cell supplier can dramatically impact the performance of your product with design decisions, but their goal is to fulfil a cell-level specification. Your goal is to deliver the best possible product to your customers, yet your influence is largely limited to squeezing performance from the cell you are given.

Breathe Design changes that dynamic. It connects cell design choices directly to product performance. It gives you a window into the cell and the ability to experiment with it digitally before it ever exists.

Virtual cells, real decisions

Breathe Design is a digital cell design tool built for speed, clarity, and control.
Through a simple, easy-to-use interface, it lets your team run complex simulations in the time it takes to make a coffee.

You can change electrode composition and thickness, tweak porosity, adjust the N/P ratio, or explore new form factors, and instantly predict the resulting performance. Imagine seeing a clear before-and-after, parameters adjusted, KPIs shifting, insights appearing in real time.

These performance metrics tell part of the story. Breathe Design can also generate physics-based cell models from your virtual designs. This enables dynamic simulations to predict performance in real-world scenarios, such as fast charging, heat generation under heavy load, and runtime during demanding duty cycles.

What we are most excited about is how these virtual cells integrate into pack and system-level simulations. You can explore hundreds of scenarios without building a single prototype, adjust design parameters, generate a cell model, and simulate system performance in minutes. This creates a connected workflow where system and cell design happen together, not in isolation.

The result is better price-to-performance optimisation, fewer blind spots, and a higher likelihood of first-shot success.

Connecting cell and system

Today, cell and system design often exist in separate worlds. One is handled by your supplier’s R&D team and the other by yours.
This separation forces compromise on both sides.

Breathe Design closes that gap. By providing accurate, physics-based cell models that integrate seamlessly into your workflows, it turns the relationship with your supplier from one-directional to collaborative. You can run simulations that inform your requirements, challenge assumptions with data, and arrive at a design that works for both the cell and the system faster, with less risk, and at a better cost.

Minutes, not months

Speed is not only about efficiency. It unlocks new possibilities.
When you can iterate quickly, you can explore more of the design space. You can test bold ideas without the penalty of long delays. You can pivot when market needs change, instead of committing to a cell that is already outdated by the time it reaches production.

Breathe Design turns the long, slow cadence of cell development into a rapid, digital conversation between design choices and performance outcomes. That means fewer surprises, fewer delays, and products that reach the market in the right form at the right time.

Why this matters now

The race to electrify transport, decarbonise grids, and expand storage is accelerating.
Every delay in development has a cost, in lost market share, in missed climate targets.

Breathe Design gives battery teams the ability to move at digital speed.
It is not just about designing better cells. It is about designing them in a way that matches the pace and scale of the challenges ahead.

A strategic advantage

When you can create virtual cells, you do not just reduce risk, you redefine your relationship with it. You can explore more options without slowing down. You can de-risk your first production run without adding months to your schedule. You can make confident, data-backed decisions without relying solely on supplier timelines.

And that means you can launch faster, with more certainty, and with a product that truly delivers.

Your turn

Breathe Design is built for battery teams that want more agency, more clarity, and more speed in the cell design process. Whether you are developing custom cells or optimising off-the-shelf options, it puts the tools in your hands to influence outcomes from day one.

So what happens when you can create virtual cells?
You stop waiting for the future.
You start building it.

Watch the Breathe Design Demo

Disposable tech is out, giving way to a new era of lasting, intelligent design. For products we use every day, longevity isn’t just desirable, it’s essential. Batteries play a crucial role in this shift. Too often they are treated as consumables, limiting both product design and lifespan. Together with Bang & Olufsen, we want to change that.

By embedding Breathe’s software into product development, Bang & Olufsen can design battery systems that last longer, perform more reliably, and reduce environmental impact. This partnership represents a shared belief: that technology should endure, and that luxury is defined as much by responsibility as it is by beauty.

A software-first approach

Through Breathe Design, Breathe Model, and Breathe Charge, Bang & Olufsen will be able to:

• Optimise battery systems holistically for performance, flexibility, and design freedom.

• Extend battery lifespan, keeping products in use for more years.

• Reduce waste and environmental footprint by avoiding unnecessary replacements.

• Preserve the integrity of timeless design, where every component — including the battery — is built to last.

This is what we call a software-defined battery: a system where design, modelling, and control adapt intelligently over time, evolving with each user and with battery health.

“At Bang & Olufsen, we believe true luxury is measured in longevity. This partnership with Breathe enables us to take a decisive step forward in designing battery powered products that not only sound and look extraordinary, but also endure. By embedding intelligent battery management into our development process, we are tackling one of the greatest limitations in modern electronics - battery lifespan - and transforming it into a strength. This is about creating products that stay in use for longer, are easier for users to maintain, reducing waste and preserving the integrity of design. It’s a natural extension of our Luxury Timeless Technology strategy, where performance, circularity, and beauty go hand in hand.”

Mads Kogsgaard Hansen
Director of Product Circularity & Portfolio Planning
Bang & Olufsen

What it means for customers

For Bang & Olufsen customers, this translates into a more robust, future-ready user experience:

• Extended product longevity without compromising performance.

• Intelligent, adaptive charging that protects battery health.

• Better repair and replacement options, supporting circular design principles.

The result is luxury audio that not only sounds extraordinary but endures — with batteries that are as capable and lasting as the products themselves.

“At Breathe, we've always believed batteries should empower design, not limit it. Partnering with Bang & Olufsen, a company that has defined timeless craftmanship for a century, gives us the chance to show how software can unlock new possibilities for performance and longevity. We're proud to support their vision, and confident this partnership will help set a new standard for what battery-powered luxury can mean for the future."

Dr Ian Campbell
CEO & Co-Founder
Breathe Battery Technologies

Looking ahead

Breathe’s software – already proven in demanding sectors like smartphones and electric vehicles – will now help Bang & Olufsen define a new standard for luxury audio products: one that balances performance, beauty, and sustainability.

This is only the beginning. Later this year, we look forward to sharing more as the first results of this collaboration come to market.

If you’d like to learn more about how we can support your own product strategy, get in touch with us. We’re always interested in hearing about your batteries. And we love finding new ways to optimise battery system development through software.

Batteries are a critical enabler of an electrified, sustainable future. From electric vehicles and grid storage to portable electronics; the performance, safety, and cost of battery-powered products hinges on the capabilities of their batteries. Yet the tools we use to design them remain fragmented, manual, and opaque.

Since our founding in 2019, we’ve focused on helping companies do more with the power they have. We started with a critical dimension of battery performance - charging. Through our first product, Breathe Charge, we’ve improved the charging experience across 28 models of OPPO and OnePlus devices, and most recently, Volvo Cars’ ES90.

But charging is just one part of the story. As the role of batteries expands across industries, so too must our approach to making them better. It’s no longer enough to focus solely on charging. We must deliver batteries that are safer, more cost-efficient, higher performing, and easier to design and manufacture. And a development process with reduced risk, improved flexibility and accelerated timelines.

Achieving this requires looking upstream: to the architecture of the cell itself. From electrode structure and cell geometry, to chemistry selection and thermal dynamics, meaningful improvements depend on influencing how batteries are conceived and built, not just how they are used.

That’s why we’ve set out to build a new kind of software toolchain. One that supports battery design from first principles and enables a more agile, collaborative, and simulation-driven future for the industry.

Proof in Action: The same model-based software architecture that underpins our toolchain now powers adaptive charging in production. In the Volvo ES90, this technology enables ultra-fast, reliable charging that protects cell health and enhances the driver experience. Read more about how Breathe and Volvo are redefining EV performance.

The state of the battery industry: fragmented and rigid

Today, battery innovation is constrained by a heavily centralised model. Cell manufacturers dominate both cell design and production, leaving OEMs with limited visibility or influence. This worked when batteries were small, inexpensive components. But now? Batteries are the single most valuable component in an EV, and performance at the system level - vehicle range, charging speed, safety - depends fundamentally on getting the cell design right.

OEMs know better than anyone what their battery needs to do in the real world. But they don’t have the tools - or ability - to meaningfully influence cell design or to design a cell with all the relevant system context. The result? High costs, long development cycles, and suboptimal outcomes.

We believe this centralised model is on the brink of disruption.

Just as semiconductors gave rise to the foundry model - where companies like TSMC manufacture chips designed by firms with the best simulation tools - we believe the battery industry is heading in the same direction. A fragmented landscape of pure-play cell manufacturers will emerge. And in this world, cell design power shifts to whoever holds the best software.

Why battery design automation matters

Imagine a world where every battery engineer can simulate, iterate, and optimise cell and system designs at their desk, without having to send prototypes to a lab and wait weeks for results from empirical tests. That world already exists in electronics.

Electronic design automation transformed the semiconductor industry by integrating workflows, reducing risk, and enabling rapid, reliable innovation. Battery design automation can do the same for our industry.

Yet, today’s battery design workflows are manual, siloed, and inefficient. Here's how battery design automation compares to the mature electronics design automation toolchains:

It’s no surprise that battery development is slow, expensive, and risky. We want to make it better and different.

Why there’s no battery design automation today

So why hasn’t battery design automation already happened?

One reason is information asymmetry. The knowledge required to design cells, such as how cathode porosity affects charge acceptance, or how separator choice impacts thermal safety, is trapped inside the walled gardens of a few cell makers. Many OEMs and startups know what their battery should do differently but not exactly how to get there; what variable to tweak, in what direction, and by how much, to achieve that outcome.

Another reason is the lack of tooling. Existing simulation software is often domain-specific (thermal, electrochemical, mechanical), lacks integration, and requires deep academic knowledge to use effectively. There's no solution to cell and battery design that reflects real-world constraints, and that also leverages industrialised parameterisation to produce quality, validated simulations and models at pace. Let alone deliver verifiable designs that can be implemented into manufacturing processes directly.

This is the void we are stepping into.

Our mission: democratise battery design

We are building a new kind of software toolchain. One that spans from the chemistry of the cell to the firmware in the vehicle on the road. Our toolchain comprises of three software solutions:

• Breathe Design – battery cell design and simulation platform that enables fast, flexible development - from first concept through to system-level integration

• Breathe Model – fully parameterised cell simulation that makes it easy to understand trade-offs and predict real-world performance

• Breathe Charge – embedded adaptive charging software that replaces outdated, manual workflows with a faster, cheaper and more flexible way of developing and deploying optimal charge control strategies

This combination of tools enables a "left-shift" in the development process, where battery control software is co-developed with the cell hardware, not added as an afterthought. That means earlier visibility of constraints and risks, tighter integration of system design, and ultimately, better batteries.

Simulation-first development

The next generation of batteries will not just be tested in a lab. They’ll be engineered in a simulation-first environment, with tools that:

• Replace manual trial-and-error with automated optimisation

• Deliver robust design verification and sign-off processes

• Support faster decision-making across teams and suppliers

We envision a battery industry where anyone, whether that’s an OEM, startup or independent cell designer, can access powerful design tools to create the optimal battery for their application. An industry that reduces battery development costs, increases agility, and strengthens the global battery supply chain.

Building better batteries

All in all, we’re creating a compelling software toolchain that starts with cell design, extends to cover battery simulation, and ends with optimal control firmware to extract every last drop of capability in the field using Breathe Charge. We’ve already proven our impact on charging experiences through our partnerships with Volvo Cars and OPPO. We’re now turning to the cell itself, with the same conviction and clarity.

Whether you're a battery engineer frustrated by the limits of your current tools or a product leader seeking better range, performance, and margins - we’re building for you. Stay tuned for a deep dive into our software, starting with why we built an answer first battery simulation tool - Breathe Model.

Together, we can build a better battery industry. One simulation at a time.

Today, that same software-first approach is powering real vehicles. In the Volvo ES90, Breathe’s adaptive control technology enables ultra-fast charging from 10 to 80 per cent in around 22 minutes while maintaining battery health and longevity. This connection between our development toolchain and production control software shows how model-based innovation can deliver measurable performance and reliability — proving that fast isn’t fragile.

Want to experience part of our toolchain for yourself? Download our free Molicel P45B Breathe Model instance - ready-to-run, so you can get to know Breathe Model. Try it today to explore how simulation software can support your battery system development.

This expansion transforms Breathe's offerings from a single embedded software solution to a comprehensive suite of battery simulation software, embedded software and battery services that support the full battery development journey. Our expanded toolchain addresses critical pain points in battery development, including performance limitations, expensive hardware overdesign, late-stage testing surprises, and lengthy development cycles that struggle to keep pace with changing market needs.  

Dr. Ian Campbell, CEO of Breathe explains why the industry needs more software:  

​"Today's battery development process is fundamentally unsustainable. Companies face a painful cycle of iterative testing, fragmented data, and limited supplier transparency that leads to inefficiencies and suboptimal designs. Designing high-quality battery-powered experiences requires a delicate balance of great cell design, seamless system integration and optimal control. By expanding our toolchain beyond our flagship Breathe Charge product, we're giving organisations the capabilities of an in-house battery team without the need to build that expertise and facilities themselves."

​The new products joining Breathe's portfolio include: 

• ​Breathe Model: Advanced cell simulation software that frees developers from the constraints of empirical testing with high-level simulations based on physics-based electrochemical and thermal dynamics 

• ​Breathe Map: Performance mapping service that goes beyond the spec-sheet to provide critical early knowledge of what cells are really capable of 

• ​Breathe Design (coming soon): Cell design software that enables engineers to create more performant, cost-effective battery systems with system-level, contextual knowledge 

​These new products complement the existing Breathe Charge software, which Volvo Cars recently announced will be featured on its upcoming ES90 sedan. Adaptive charging software, Breathe Charge, dynamically controls the charging current by managing internal electrochemical states. The result is an improved charging experience, including faster charging across different real-world use cases and enhanced battery longevity.   

​Dr Yan Zhao, CTO of Breathe, on the vision behind our product innovation and development: 

​"As battery engineers, we continue to collectively search for ways to bring down the cost of delivering better battery systems, so we've built the tools we wish existed: a software toolchain for the design, validation and optimisation of better batteries. By combining simulation to inform decisions earlier in development with embedded charge control to optimise performance, we're providing the tools needed to build superior battery systems at lower cost, with reduced risk and faster time-to-market." 

​Breathe's solutions enable organisations to deliver class-leading battery performance that enhances user experience and product competitiveness – while simultaneously ensuring they can balance this performance with cost. The complete toolchain enriches battery development workflows with earlier access to performance data, increased agility through periods of change, whilst also providing insights that give designers greater influence in the battery supply chain.​

Contact

Breathe Media Relations
Tel: +44 (0)2045 295647
media@breathebatteries.com

About Breathe

Breathe Battery Technologies (“Breathe”) is more than a battery performance company. Since being spun out of Imperial College in 2019, Breathe’s focus has been on building battery technology to contribute to a faster, better and more sustainable electrification of the world. 

Today, it provides a software toolchain for batteries that helps the world’s most iconic electric vehicle and consumer electronics brands do more with the power they have. Because an electrified future requires superior customer experiences. The company’s simulation and embedded software products encompass the full battery development lifecycle to enable the design, validation and optimisation of better batteries. 

Breathe Battery Technologies’ dream is that one day everyone will breathe clean air. That's why it makes batteries better. 

The Verge recently covered this shift toward software-defined battery performance in its profile of Breathe and Volvo’s work on adaptive charging for the ES90. Read the full story here.

This article explains the engineering behind that capability, why it matters, and how Breathe’s physics-based approach is already proving that fast charging does not have to be fragile.

For a deeper technical dive into that principle, see here.

To learn more about our collaboration with Volvo Cars, visit here.

The limits of traditional charging control

For years, EV charging strategies have been built around lookup tables. These tables define how much current a pack can accept at each combination of temperature and state of charge. They are conservative by design and they cannot reflect the true behaviour of a cell across its full operating range.

The impact is familiar across the industry. Slower charging outside ideal temperature windows. Higher thermal loads just to stay inside those narrow windows. A gap between what a battery could deliver and what a static lookup table allows.

This is not a chemistry problem. It is a control problem.

A physics-based approach to charging

Breathe Charge replaces lookup tables with real-time visibility of electrochemistry. The software uses a lightweight, embedded physics model that operates comfortably inside existing BMS microcontrollers. With less than 10 kilobytes of memory required, it integrates cleanly into today’s automotive platforms.

The model predicts how ions will move within the cell at each moment. With that level of visibility, the charging system can adjust current dynamically across the full performance envelope. The result is a charging curve that tracks the true capability of the battery rather than a coarse approximation.

This improves speed, stability and long-term health at the same time.

Proven gains in real vehicles

In validation with Volvo Cars, Breathe Charge delivered a 30 percent reduction in charging time from 10 to 80 percent on a high-power charger. At zero degrees Celsius the improvement reached 48 percent.

These gains were achieved on existing hardware. No new cell. No change to the pack. A software upgrade made the battery more available to the driver without increasing degradation.

This is why Volvo will launch the ES90 with Breathe Charge inside. It is also why our technology is already active in select consumer devices.

Designed for the hardware OEMs use today

Automotive battery management systems operate on constrained embedded platforms. Any software expected to scale must respect these limits.

Breathe Charge is engineered for this environment. It runs efficiently on existing microcontrollers and can be deployed through standard automotive processes, including over-the-air updates where supported.

This makes physics-based charging practical for current programmes and even more capable for the processors that will arrive in the next generation of EVs.

Do more with the power we have

Battery innovation is no longer limited to cell materials. Control has become a decisive lever. When a system can see the internal physics of its battery, it can deliver faster charging, longer lifetime and more predictable performance across real conditions.

Software is unlocking the capability already present in today’s cells. This is how OEMs deliver better products without additional hardware complexity.

If you want to explore the principles behind adaptive charging in more detail, download our whitepaper:

Since its founding in 2009, The Europas awards has identified startups who have gone on to disrupt their industries, including household names like Spotify and Deliveroo. We are honoured that The Europas recognises our technological vision, and the impact our innovative battery technology is having on entire industries to transform, particularly automotive for electric vehicles (EVs) and consumer electronics. 

Championing battery innovation for real-world impact 

At Breathe, our mission is to help brands do more with the power they have, by unlocking the full potential of every battery, making charging experiences more performant, reliable, and durable. As the world accelerates towards electrification, battery technology needs to keep pace - not just in terms of capacity and performance, but also sustainability.  

This is where Breathe makes batteries better. With advanced physics-based battery management software, our adaptive charging technology ensures batteries charge faster, last longer, and meet demanding regulatory standards without expensive hardware modifications. 

Why recognition matters 

With over a century of accrued battery engineering expertise, our inclusion in The Europas 100 acknowledges our team’s dedication to solving some of the most pressing challenges in the battery industry.  For us, this is a shared recognition of the impact we’ve made as we support a global shift towards sustainable electrification.  

What’s next for Breathe? 

Being part of The Europas 100 is a milestone, but it’s just part of our journey. We look forward to scaling our adaptive charging software, expanding partnerships across automotive and consumer electronics, and driving further advancements in battery performance. Our vision of creating a world where everyone can breathe clean air feels closer than ever, as we keep pushing the boundaries of what battery technology can achieve. 

Contact

Breathe Media Relations
Tel: +44 (0)2045 295647
media@breathebatteries.com

About Breathe

Breathe Battery Technologies (“Breathe”) is more than a battery performance company. Since being spun out of Imperial College in 2019, Breathe’s focus has been on building battery technology to contribute to a faster, better and more sustainable electrification of the world. 

Today, it provides a software toolchain for batteries that helps the world’s most iconic electric vehicle and consumer electronics brands do more with the power they have. Because an electrified future requires superior customer experiences. The company’s simulation and embedded software products encompass the full battery development lifecycle to enable the design, validation and optimisation of better batteries. 

Breathe Battery Technologies’ dream is that one day everyone will breathe clean air. That's why it makes batteries better. 

With the dominance of lithium-ion batteries in the market today, the question arises: will we ever run out of lithium?  

The battery value chain is estimated to grow by over 30 percent annually from now until 2030. And the demand for battery factories is expected to grow from 700 GWh in 2022 to 1.7 TWh by 2025, not only in China where the chain segments are mature, but also in the EU and the United States with efforts towards localising supply chains. But forecasts have indicated a near-term supply deficit in lithium as early as 2025, in part due to the rising sale of EVs.
To anticipate this evolution and support the growing need for batteries across industries, from EVs to consumer electronics to defence, manufacturers are diversifying their cell chemistry.

This search for new chemistries is driven by the demand for increased energy density, cost competitiveness, safety and lifespan. Besides materials improvement, the battery management system is also adopting new technologies to better monitor and regulate the battery in real-time.  

Here, we explore and compare some of the most promising emerging battery chemistries, plus, the secret to extracting maximum value from them.

An evaluation of emerging chemistries

Every new chemistry comes with its specific strengths and weaknesses. While the most common battery chemistry today is graphite for anodes and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) or lithium iron phosphate (LFP) for cathodes, new chemistries are well under development. 

The figure below shows the progress and evolution of chemistry development over the past 20+ years.

 There are four emerging chemistries that show the most promise today:

• Silicon anode: After years of incremental improvement, silicon is now a mainstay anode material in batteries in both consumer electronics and automotive sectors. It has a theoretical capacity 10 times larger than that of graphite but has poor lifespan due to the large volume expansion of over 300% during lithiation. Regardless of the cycle life issues, silicon has been gaining popularity since 2022, due to the 20–40% energy density boost it provides, in addition to its abundancy and lower carbon footprint. The market size is expected to grow from $2 billion by 100 times from now to 2035.
  

• High-nickel cathodes: For cathodes, high-nickel layer oxide is sought after for enhancing energy density towards 800 Wh/kg, coupled with the incentive to reduce cost and the controversial mining of cobalt. The common compositions are NCM-811 (LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2) and NMC (LiNi0.8 Co0.15Al0.05O2). The disadvantage is the trade-off in rate capability because of lowered cathode structural stability with reduced cobalt content. Nowadays both high-nickel compositions are largely deployed in the automotive industry.
  

• Solid-state batteries: The solid-state battery was first commercialised in 2015, and since then faced both excitement and scepticism in its development. This is sometimes referred to as a lithium metal battery because replacing the liquid electrolyte with a ceramic or solid polymer allows the lithium metal to accumulate directly on the anode. 
  
  The huge energy-density increase solid-state batteries deliver is the main driver to launch this chemistry, for higher range and longer runtime. The reduced risk of a battery fire due to the absence flammable liquid electrolyte in the event of mechanical damage is another bonus. The technology challenge remains at the interfaces between the anode and the solid electrolyte, where dendrite formation, poor contact and cracking can lead to battery failure. Toyota in 2023 announced mass production of solid-state batteries by 2027/28 with sulphide-based electrolytes while some other major players continue to be wary of the long development time and high production cost.
  

• Sodium-ion batteries: Sodium, as an alternative to lithium, has the advantage of being naturally abundant, with a sustainable supply available from seawater. In 2023, CATL announced the first sodium-ion battery to power Chery EV, with Prussian white cathode and hard carbon anode. Despite the issue of low energy density, many large manufacturers like BYD and Northvolt have followed the pursuit of full-scale production of sodium-ion batteries because of the 30% reduction in cost compared to lithium-ion batteries.
  

• Hybrid pack design: With the availability of multiple battery chemistries in the market also comes hybrid pack design. The hybrid approach mixes cells of different chemistries in a pack. For example, CATL and BYD used a hybrid of sodium-ion and lithium-ion batteries when adopting sodium-ion technology in mass-production vehicles to mitigate the range deficit. NIO also launched its 75 kWh hybrid-cell battery with both NMC and LFP to improve cold temperature range. However, the hybrid trend demands additional technology to provide accurate state estimation and precise control algorithms for ensuring both performance and safety.

Extracting value from emerging chemistries

As with lithium-ion, there are always additional ways to extract value from the battery. While it’s all well and good to explore different chemistries as a means of achieving greater performance, each chemistry - and even different batteries using the same chemistry - has a wide range of potential energy density, power density, and cycle-life available. This leaves a significant opportunity on the table to optimise battery performance. Advanced battery control technology is increasingly being implemented by EV and consumer electronics OEMs as a means of extracting maximum performance from available chemistries. This technology ensures optimal charge and discharge cycles, in different usage patterns, to extract more energy and lifetime from each battery.

Regardless of the material, it is important to understand the mechanisms happening inside the battery. Advanced control algorithms, specifically those that use a real-time physics-based model running online, can easily adapt to new battery chemistries due to the underlying physical models being formulated based on the kinetics and thermodynamics of electrochemical reactions. 

Most batteries, comprised of an anode, a cathode and the electrolyte, share large similarities in the kinetics and thermodynamics underpinning their performance and longevity. As a result, control strategies informed by physics offer the versatility to be applied to multiple chemistries to extract maximum potential.

Adopting new chemistries without the addition of advanced battery control technology will always leave the battery underutilised because today’s standard control strategies are too rudimentary to exploit the strengths and weaknesses of these chemistries based on their underlying physics. Whether the future of battery chemistry stays with lithium-ion, or advances to one of the alternatives mentioned above, we should not rely on chemistry alone to achieve a step-change in battery performance. OEMs should always explore how complimentary technology can help them achieve their battery and user experience objectives.  

So, are emerging chemistries a suitable alternative to today’s lithium-ion batteries?

The answer is still uncertain. But with a synergistic approach between materials improvement and software development, we can make significant advancements to the performance of emerging battery chemistries despite their different electrochemical reactions and degradation mechanisms. What is clear, is that a one-size-fits-all approach to battery control is no longer good enough to extract all available performance, regardless of chemistry. 

The combination of materials and software-based control strategies is going to be critical in achieving improved battery efficiency, safety and lifetime, and collaboration between battery makers, software suppliers and OEMs is essential to create a more sustainable future powered by more performant battery solutions.   

Contact

Breathe Media Relations
Tel: +44 (0)2045 295647
media@breathebatteries.com

About Breathe

Breathe Battery Technologies (“Breathe”) is more than a battery performance company. Since being spun out of Imperial College in 2019, Breathe’s focus has been on building battery technology to contribute to a faster, better and more sustainable electrification of the world. 

Today, it provides a software toolchain for batteries that helps the world’s most iconic electric vehicle and consumer electronics brands do more with the power they have. Because an electrified future requires superior customer experiences. The company’s simulation and embedded software products encompass the full battery development lifecycle to enable the design, validation and optimisation of better batteries. 

Breathe Battery Technologies’ dream is that one day everyone will breathe clean air. That's why it makes batteries better. 

Volvo Cars’ new ES90 showcases a breakthrough in charging performance enabled by Breathe’s adaptive charging software. Integrated into Volvo’s in-house battery management platform, this collaboration demonstrates how model-based control can deliver faster charging, up to 30 per cent quicker from 10 to 80 per cent state of charge, while protecting battery health and longevity.

Our partnership with Volvo Cars provides the latest version of our algorithm-enabled charging software for Volvo’s new generation of fully electric cars. By integrating Breathe Charge into Volvo’s own battery management system, Volvo customers can enjoy significantly faster charging times and an enhanced driving and charging experience.

Volvo will implement the latest version of Breathe Charge, our adaptive charging software, in its new generation fully electric cars. Our extensive validation indicates that Breathe Charge will reduce the time it takes to charge an electric Volvo from 10 to 80% state of charge by as much as 30%*, while maintaining the same energy density and range. Thanks to the health-adaptive nature of our technology, the charging time improvements will be maintained across the full battery life cycle, without impacting battery health or longevity. 

Independent validation: faster charging, proven reliability

Media reviews of the Volvo ES90 have confirmed the impact of Breathe’s adaptive charging software in real-world conditions. Leading automotive publications have praised the ES90’s ultra-fast charging capability and consistent performance.

• Autocar noted that “right now it charges faster than any of its German rivals” and described the car as a major step forward in everyday charging performance.

• Auto Express highlighted its “true ultra-rapid charging abilities” and added that “rather than offering a long range or fast charging, the ES90 delivers on both fronts.”

• Car Magazine reported that “charging speeds mean a 10 to 80 per cent charge can be completed in just 22 minutes” and praised its “long range and impressive charging speed.”

• Top Gear emphasised that “the new adaptive charging software comes from a company called Breathe Battery Technologies, which Volvo’s venture capital arm recently invested in.” It also noted that “charging speed is perhaps even more important than overall range.”

These independent reviews reinforce Breathe’s commitment to delivering charging experiences that are fast, consistent, and reliable throughout the battery’s life.

Learn more: Go behind the technology in our latest article, Fast Isn’t Fragile: Why Breathe Charge Delivers Speed and Stability, to see how adaptive control enables ultra-fast, reliable charging in the Volvo ES90 and beyond.

Partnering for mobility

Our collaboration with Volvo Cars is the result of a sourcing agreement for Breathe Charge, as well as the latest investment by the Volvo Cars Tech Fund, its corporate venture capital arm. It reflects Volvo’s ambition to lead the development of premium electric cars and become a fully electric car maker by 2030.

In Volvo, we have a partner that shares our passion for electric mobility and delightful driver experiences. With our physics-based battery management software, we have the aim of contributing to faster, better and more sustainable electrification of the world – a mission that aligns closely with Volvo’s corporate goals. 

“The investment and commercial partnership with Breathe helps us address a familiar pain point for electric car customers and makes our charging performance even more competitive,” says Ann-Sofie Ekberg, CEO of the Volvo Cars Tech Fund. “Faster charging times, in the range where customers typically fast charge, represent a major step in the right direction as we continue to boost electric mobility and make it available to more people.”

Software-defined cars deserve software-defined batteries

At Breathe, end-user experience is everything. And our total focus is building battery software that enhances customer experience. To do this, we help customers - like Volvo Cars - enhance their electrification roadmaps by extracting untapped potential from their existing batteries to deliver greater performance. This partnership shows that fast charging and reliability do not have to be trade-offs. By combining model-based control with adaptive algorithms, Breathe and Volvo are proving that fast is not fragile. It is the foundation for long-lasting, reliable electric performance. Our dedication and focus on building innovative technology, that solves real-world challenges, ensures that global brands, like Volvo Cars, see the value of engaging with us to embed our software into their vehicles.

Ann-Sofie adds, “We have a lot of highly-skilled battery and software talent in-house. And as our vehicles are becoming more and more software-defined, we are really clear that we need to define which areas we should build internally, and which ones we should work with world-class suppliers and partners. And this is an area where we've found that Breathe has the level of expertise and capabilities that mean we really should collaborate.”

Our physics-based battery management software uses adaptive charging to dynamically control the charging current in real-time, replacing traditional stepped charging strategies which rely on a pre-determined set of rules, often implemented as look-up tables. Breathe Charge uses a physics-based battery model to dynamically manage the battery’s internal electrochemical states. 

Using our patented algorithms, our software increases charging speeds, without requiring any trade-offs to other battery attributes such as energy density, battery health or safety. It does so by managing the charging process in line with the battery’s evolving health, to deliver the best driver experience while avoiding the risk of lithium plating - a key contributor to reduced battery performance and lifespan. We do this economically responsibly, and with minimal supply chain risk, by finding innovative ways to get more performance for the same battery.

Dr Björn Fridholm, Technical Expert, Battery Management at Volvo Cars comments, “Differentiated, premium user experiences are enabled by the optimal, safe and reliable operation of battery systems. Embedding lookup tables and profiles of charge current as functions of temperature, state-of-charge and even state-of-health is no longer sufficient to deliver those experiences, or to keep pace with the rate of development of new batteries from A sample candidates through to in-production refreshes.”
“Adaptive charging, enabled through an embedded and real-time physics-based battery model, is now the new standard. Simply, it enables us to continue our march to “optimal”, while ensuring the safety and reliability that Volvo is renowned for. With Breathe, we are accessing that future immediately, delivering a better end-user experience for Volvo customers. We selected Breathe Charge because of its maturity, and we’re delighted to take advantage of the opportunity to lead the transition to adaptive charging.”

Powering a more sustainable future

Volvo Cars’ investment in our software helps position it for an all-electric future, while also aligning with its ambitions of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions and becoming a circular business by 2040. Breathe Charge not only reduces the charging times of Volvo’s electric cars, but does so without the need to change battery pack design or mine additional materials to avoid additional environment impacts.

Since it is fully compatible with existing hardware, scaling is straightforward, enabling us to support Volvo Cars as it increases its sales of fully electric cars significantly in coming years. 

“We’re very pleased with this investment and sourcing agreement with Volvo Cars and support their exciting journey towards full electrification,” says Dr Ian Campbell, CEO of Breathe. “Deploying our technology at scale on Volvo’s next generation of EV platform opens doors to innovative car designs and performance improvements. We share a profound passion for electric mobility, and convenient, fast charging is one of the cornerstone enablers for the future we strive towards.”

Investing in the future of Breathe 

The investment by Volvo Cars Tech Fund marks a significant moment in our journey. The fund, which was established in 2018 to invest in companies and technology that transform the automotive industry, makes strategic investments to help start-ups thrive and jointly accelerate the transformation of the global mobility industry. 
With their support, we will be able to continue building innovative technology to help transform the future of mobility and electrification. 

*Different battery packs will result in varying charging times. Testing indicated charge time improvements from 15-30%.

Discover how adaptive control is redefining fast, reliable EV charging.

Volvo’s ES90 achieves a 10 to 80 per cent charge in around 22 minutes, demonstrating that adaptive control can deliver both speed and stability.

“Adaptive charging, enabled through an embedded and real time physics-based battery model, is now the new standard. Simply, it enables us to continue our march to “optimal”, while ensuring the safety and reliability that Volvo is renowned for. With Breathe, we are accessing that future immediately, delivering a better end-user experience for Volvo customers. We selected Breathe Charge because of its maturity, and we’re delighted to take advantage of the opportunity to lead the transition to adaptive charging.”

Dr Björn Fridholm,
Technical Expert, Battery Management 
Volvo Cars

Contact

Breathe Media Relations
Tel: +44 (0)2045 295647
media@breathebatteries.com

About Breathe

Breathe Battery Technologies (“Breathe”) is more than a battery performance company. Since being spun out of Imperial College in 2019, Breathe’s focus has been on building battery technology to contribute to a faster, better and more sustainable electrification of the world. 

Today, it provides a software toolchain for batteries that helps the world’s most iconic electric vehicle and consumer electronics brands do more with the power they have. Because an electrified future requires superior customer experiences. The company’s simulation and embedded software products encompass the full battery development life cycle to enable the design, validation and optimisation of better batteries. 

Breathe Battery Technologies’ dream is that one day everyone will breathe clean air. That's why it makes batteries better. 

Breathe's Co-founder and Chief Scientist, Professor Greg Offer, delves into the topic of battery swelling, answering key questions including; what is it, why does it happen and how can it be prevented in consumer electronics and automotive applications. 

Today’s consumers expect a premium experience. In consumer electronics, this means ever-thinner, sleeker devices with high runtime, and in automotive, electric vehicles with generous range and powerful charging capabilities. Yet achieving this is easier said than done, and product managers responsible for designing the next, greatest generation of products face constant trade-offs between product design, battery performance and device safety. 

One of the primary concerns when balancing battery attributes to design high-performance batteries is swelling, the expansion of the battery due to a build-up of gasses inside. In the quest to deliver maximum performance in the most attractive form factor, product engineers must ensure they are not inadvertently increasing the possibility of battery swelling, and as a result, impacting the overall safety of the product or end-user experience.

In this article, Breathe Co-founder, Chief Scientist and Chair of our Scientific Advisory Board, Professor Greg Offer, shares his insights on battery swelling, answering key questions including why batteries swell and how can swelling be prevented. 

Why do batteries swell

Batteries can swell for two main reasons. The first, reversible thermal expansion and contraction as batteries warm and cool, is typically minor, predictable in scale and timing, and relatively easily accommodated in product design, for example by designing a volume tolerance in the battery compartment.

The second, irreversible expansion, is more of a challenge because today it is less predictable in its scale and timing. Irreversible expansion always occurs as a result of a degradation mechanism, such as oxygen evolution, dendrite formation, electrode decomposition or others – see “Lithium ion battery degradation: what you need to know” by J. Edge et al. for more background on mechanisms. A degradation mechanism is an unwanted chemical reaction, sometimes triggered by a mechanical process. The most common is known as Solid Electrolyte Interphase (SEI) layer growth, which is where the electrolyte reacts with lithium ions in the negative electrode (anode), typically carbon, to form a passivating layer on the surface of the electrode particles. This SEI is essential to the operation of a lithium-ion battery and can be considered analogous to the oxide layer that forms on aluminium, allowing a highly reactive metal to exist in air, which is a highly oxidising environment. An ideal SEI prevents further degradation reactions but allows lithium ions to diffuse through it, and therefore allows the battery to charge/discharge.

How to control SEI growth

In reality, no SEI is perfect. It continues to grow, particularly at higher temperatures. The rate of SEI layer growth in high-quality batteries can, however, be controlled or slowed down so it is barely noticeable. This is possible through a range of actions available from cell design through to control strategy development at the product and system original equipment manufacturer (OEM) stage. During cell design, cell manufacturers can select swelling-inhibiting electrolyte additives and can make swelling-abating cell design choices. At the product stage, vehicle and device OEMs can select current, voltage and temperature limits, and charge control strategies, to limit swelling. Unfortunately, imposed limits at this stage can sometimes increase cost or reduce useable energy, reducing usable power and charging speeds. Therefore, as product engineers at vehicle and device OEMs, imposition of such limits is undesirable and carries the potential of negatively impacting end-user experiences at one, or both, of the start of life or throughout the product life. 

The link between SEI and swelling

It is the consequences of SEI layer growth that lead users to experience battery swelling. When the lithium ions react with the electrolyte, they are reacting with a solvent molecule, which is commonly an organic molecule such as ethylene carbonate.

Although the reactions in practice can be significantly more complicated, the ethylene carbonate reaction is a good example of the underlying principle. Here, (CH₂O)₂CO, upon reaction with lithium, can very easily form ethylene gas, which is highly reactive, and a lithium salt which becomes part of the SEI. Other gases, such as ethane, CO₂, CO, H₂, and other organic molecules can also form in varying ratios dependent upon conditions and the mix of solvents and additives designed into the battery. 

Degradation beyond SEI

Degradation mechanisms other than SEI layer growth can also directly or indirectly generate gases that contribute towards swelling. Many of those mechanisms do so indirectly by accelerating the SEI layer growth. An example is particle cracking which can happen during fast charging and fast discharging and is exacerbated at relatively lower temperatures. Others, like lithium plating, result in unprotected metallic lithium being exposed to the electrolyte. In this regard, both particle cracking and lithium plating are similar in that they expose a fresh electrode surface on which new SEI forms, leading to accelerated SEI layer growth and subsequent gas generation. At the positive electrode (cathode), degradation that contributes to swelling can also occur.  Different cathodes suffer from oxygen evolution, transition metal dissolution, and acid attack in varying degrees, many of which can result in gas generation.

How to prevent swelling in consumer electronics and EV applications

Managing and preventing swelling is a game of managing degradation. If the degradation mechanisms that are dominating a particular battery in a specific application are well understood, then it is possible to change the future outcomes that the battery experiences, including swelling, in several different ways. Cell designers and manufacturers can adjust the additives and solvents in the electrolyte to reduce the underlying SEI layer growth rates, and other cell design variables to reduce the likelihood of particle cracking, lithium plating and cathode degradation. Product engineers have historically had little available option to prevent swelling short of trading-off battery system performance and end-user experience to impose limits that de-rate the battery and curtail degradation mechanisms.

No swelling, zero trade-offs

Increasingly today, there is another option available to product managers and battery and control engineers in device and vehicle OEMs to prevent swelling, without the need to compromise on performance. This is the use of health-adaptive charge control (“adaptive charging”), which operates with an active awareness of battery health. This technology and approach, as found in physics-based battery management software, can reduce degradation during system operation by actively navigating the battery through its life in a way that delivers both a great end-user experience for charging and longevity and, in real-time, avoids degradation mechanisms that could contribute to swelling.

Avoiding swelling is fundamental to delivering a premium user experience. But swelling is ultimately a result of degradation, and therefore any strategy to reduce degradation will decrease the risk of battery swelling within a product. Product engineers therefore have a choice to make when deciding how to minimise degradation in new products: adapting cell design or imposing system limits to trade performance and longevity, or deploying intelligent control software to existing cells to keep swelling under control without the need to compromise on performance. 

Contact

Breathe Media Relations
Tel: +44 (0)2045 295647
media@breathebatteries.com

About Breathe

Breathe Battery Technologies (“Breathe”) is more than a battery performance company. Since being spun out of Imperial College in 2019, Breathe’s focus has been on building battery technology to contribute to a faster, better and more sustainable electrification of the world. 

Today, it provides a software toolchain for batteries that helps the world’s most iconic electric vehicle and consumer electronics brands do more with the power they have. Because an electrified future requires superior customer experiences. The company’s simulation and embedded software products encompass the full battery development lifecycle to enable the design, validation and optimisation of better batteries. 

Breathe Battery Technologies’ dream is that one day everyone will breathe clean air. That's why it makes batteries better. 

Lithium-ion batteries are the heartbeat of our modern world, powering everything from mobile devices to electric vehicles. The pursuit of enhancing their safety, performance and sustainability is not only a scientific endeavour, but a global imperative. At Breathe, we strive to lead the way in bringing the latest advancements in battery control to the market to help achieve this.

To do this, scientific innovation is a constant, ensuring we stay at the cutting edge of the industry and develop battery technology that will have maximum impact on OEMs and end-users alike. The formation of a Scientific Advisory Board is just one step in meeting our scientific goals. 

The board, which is made up of some of the world’s leading experts in battery control, development and innovation, is responsible for providing strategic advice to guide our technology development and product roadmap. Together, its four members represent the pinnacle of the battery field.

Our Scientific Advisory Board members are:

• Professor Gregory Plett - University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

• Professor Matthieu Dubarry - Hawaii Natural Energy Institute

• Professor Greg Offer - Imperial College London and Breathe Battery Technologies

• Dr Yan Zhao - Breathe Battery Technologies 

During the latest meeting of the Breathe Scientific Advisory Board, we sat down for a panel discussion to gather our board members’ unique insights on the latest advancements in lithium-ion batteries, and how they believe OEMs can use these to gain a competitive advantage. 

In the video, our board discusses a range of topics including; the recent breakthroughs in lithium-ion battery development, the burst of data and machine learning strategies, how OEMs can differentiate their battery strategy, metrics to measure battery performance, the opportunity presented by new chemistries, and how we can increase sustainability to meet global climate targets.

Dr Yan Zhao comments, "We are excited to be able to leverage some of the leading global voices in the field of lithium-ion batteries, both for the benefit of Breathe's product development, but also for the wider industry through this panel discussion. We hope the topics discussed will give battery teams new ideas for how they can enhance their organisation's battery strategy."

Watch part 1 of the video below, or click here to watch the full panel discussion on.

To discuss any of the topics covered in the panel discussion in more detail, get in touch with us for a conversation - we'd love to hear from you!

Contact

Breathe Media Relations
Tel: +44 (0)2045 295647
media@breathebatteries.com

About Breathe

Breathe Battery Technologies (“Breathe”) is more than a battery performance company. Since being spun out of Imperial College in 2019, Breathe’s focus has been on building battery technology to contribute to a faster, better and more sustainable electrification of the world. 

Today, it provides a software toolchain for batteries that helps the world’s most iconic electric vehicle and consumer electronics brands do more with the power they have. Because an electrified future requires superior customer experiences. The company’s simulation and embedded software products encompass the full battery development lifecycle to enable the design, validation and optimisation of better batteries. 

Breathe Battery Technologies’ dream is that one day everyone will breathe clean air. That's why it makes batteries better. 

By helping you do more with the power you have.

If you're familiar with tech history, you'll recall Blackberry's fixation on making perfect keyboards. Then in 2007, Apple simply changed the game with a software-driven strategy, transforming the customer experience overnight. Apple built an empire on the tight integration of software and hardware, effectively rendering Blackberry irrelevant instead of competing with it. This was the dawn of a new era. 

This page from history draws striking parallels to the current battery landscape. Batteries are inherently complex systems that combine mechanical, thermal, and electrochemical phenomena. Since Alessandro Volta's inaugural battery 220 years ago, manufacturers have mainly focused on improving hardware components, pushing their processes beyond Six Sigma, and investing massive capital and resources to increase their yield, scale, safety, and quality. The opportunity tied up in continued hardware development and the associated complexity had left little room for software. 

Using the power of software is something dear to my heart, and I know high performance, long-life, affordable batteries are the key to moving us towards a clean power world - and so do my co-founders Yan Zhao and Greg Offer. Our collective dream is for us and our kids to breathe cleaner air, and we can only do that with the electrification of everything. 

This is why we created Breathe and brought to the industry a step-change approach: physics-based battery management software. Our technology already brings dramatic improvement to our customers’ products, like VARTA’s EasyBlade which now reaches 50% state of charge in 43% less time with zero impact on the battery life or Oppo's Reno8 Smartphone Series which retains 80% of its capacity after 4 years instead of 2.

Thinking from first principles.

Progress is engineered, and so is Breathe. To reach our vision, we carefully evaluated several potential paths, each with different risk/reward profiles.  

Our goal was always to maximise the rate of progress, do it fast, and empower global businesses with a massively scalable, affordable, and hugely potent solution. 

Through an adaptive software approach and powerful algorithms, we knew we could get much more power from existing batteries at any point in their life and quickly have an impact at scale – because the planet needs us, and we don’t have the luxury of time.  

Achieving macroeconomic efficiency is critically important and it's why we designed Breathe to become the technology partner of choice for consumer electronics and electric vehicle companies, with a strong focus on enhancing the end-user experience. Because your laptop should not let you down at the end of the meeting, and you want to safely drive your family home in your electric car before the storm.

What sets our team apart is not just our deep technical expertise, but also our integration within our customers' product design and battery teams.

Our technology and products already resonate with iconic brands, including Varta, Rimac, Cosworth, and Oppo to name a few. (Today, 25+ different models of Oppo’s premium phones have a Battery Health Engine powered by Breathe). 

Just like they don’t develop their own operating systems, these major industry players don’t want to reinvent the wheel with in-house development. They believe in standardisation and true partnership to achieve software excellence at scale. 

Having a shared vision is also critical when it comes to investors and since Lowercarbon Capital "backs kickass companies that make real money slashing CO2 emissions, sucking carbon out of the sky, and buying us time to unf**k the planet”, we knew they were perfect for us.

“This is why today we’re delighted to announce that Lowercarbon Capital is leading our $10M Series A round, with participation from our seed stage investor, Speedinvest. 

We chose to partner with Chris Sacca, Clea Kolster, Clay Dumas and the rest of the Lowercarbon Capital team because we love their conviction for doing what it takes to make this world better, no matter the technology depth or the height of the mountain. We believe it gives our customers, and the planet, the best possible chance.”

Dr Ian Campbell, CEO and Co-founder @ Breathe

Lighting up the path to disruption.

Growing up in Ireland, I was passionate about motorsports. At 12, my father bought me my first competition-grade radio control car. I caught the tail-end of nickel cadmium in the electronics powering my receiver and transmitter electronics and its fascinating memory effect. I experienced the transition to nickel metal hydride and spent years assembling battery packs out of the wonderfully colourful shrink-wrapped cells in the early 2000s. GP and Sanyo were my favourites. Chargers had a knob that you turned up until the current gauge showed the amps were in the red, and charging was a straight constant current until you collided with the voltage ceiling, or the battery got hot.

Then I discovered lithium-ion. I was obsessed with lightweight parts, and this thing was light. And it needed this crazy little device called a voltage regulator because suddenly there were 7.4 V instead of 6 V. I fell hook, line, and sinker in love. 

Years later, when I saw what Tesla was doing and I felt that if I – someone who had grown-up playing with engines, the petrol-head child in the Top Gear generation – could see so clearly that electric cars would be the future, there was no way the electrification of the entire auto industry wouldn’t happen.  

I wanted to be part of that moment, so I enrolled in a PhD in lithium-ion battery engineering at Imperial College.  

This is where I met my co-founder Yan, who had moved all the way to the UK from Lanzhou, China for his secondary education, on a mission to work in Formula 1. A year working on developing diesel engines shocked him into the realisation that combustion engineering was not the future. So, upon returning to university after the summer of 2013, he immediately began developing the battery system for ZEPHiR, Imperial Racing Green’s electric racing motorbike. By 2015, when we met in our PhD programmes under the tuition of Greg Offer, we hit it off immediately. 

By 2019, we had won the Energy & Environment track of Imperial College’s Venture Catalyst Challenge. This is when we both declined attractive job offers and instead went to Manchester for a Climate-KIC workshop with a draft business model canvas in the boot and never looked back. 

Breathe was born. 

Our frustration acted as a driver for us: we did not want science for the sake of science. We wanted to have a real business impact and to make consumers like us infinitely happier. 

This is the reason that Greg Offer gets out of bed every day and the reason he has blazed an incredible career at the bleeding edge of battery research. Through his role as Professor at Imperial College London and as the Principle Investigator of the Faraday Institution’s Multi-scale Modelling programme, Greg has maintained a 360-degree view of the industry. He knew the unsolved pain points and was at the cutting edge of thermal management, chemistry (Greg is a chemist by training, and specialises in “converting” engineers, part of his Midas touch), control, and battery design. He joined us as a co-founder, and we went heads down.

We spent the dark winter of 2020 in a basement laboratory, while COVID was bringing isolation and desolation. We scribbled maths on blackboards and wired up commercial off-the-shelf batteries to cyclers running alpha versions of our new physics-based software. It was pure engineering, and the world around us was shut down. Somehow, through these rough times, the silence helped us and we achieved our breakthrough. 

Addressing suboptimal battery control. 

There’s a beautiful world inside the batteries that power your phone or your electric car.  

Atoms move, driven by gradients in the concentrations of electrochemically active species such as lithium. Materials morph from one composition to another, expanding and contracting as they’re intercalated. Copper and aluminium foil shuttle electrons out to semiconductors and motors to satisfy our demands for productivity, music, and acceleration. It’s completely hidden from sight. 

Despite this complexity, almost every battery is controlled by only three measurable surface quantities: terminal voltage, temperature, and electrical current. Why? Because they are easy to measure and can be managed according to simple rules, most often implemented as lookup tables.  

It’s a one-size-fits-all, “fire and forget” attitude. It’s an approach that assumes that these measurable quantities are sufficiently good proxies of what’s happening inside and that what’s actually happening inside can be safely ignored. 

At Breathe we strongly disagree.

We believe relying only on measurable quantities for control is the wrong approach for several reasons:  

• It chokes the operating envelope of the battery system, limiting performance, and heavily underutilises the cell materials you’ve paid for.

• It requires engineers to constantly trade between the attributes that end-users care about; charge speed, cycle life, energy density, cost, and safety in a zero-sum environment. 

• It ignores the ageing of the battery system.  

It’s an approach that leads to “defensive design” – the practice of deliberately over-engineering the battery system and/or limiting its performance to pre-emptively face off against its uncontrolled evolution with ageing. And it relies on significant safety margins to compensate for the lack of adaptability. In the end, this means end users pay more for less. 

Making batteries better. Much better.

In August the European Union birthed the new Batteries Regulation which introduces a minimum durability and performance level for batteries. Consumers, regulators and the planet are demanding longer-lasting, higher-performing and more affordable batteries. 

So how do we make batteries dramatically better? By leveraging the most advanced algorithms to implement adaptive control and packaging it in a way that’s incredibly simple for our customers to adopt and use.   

Since internal states are not directly measurable with sensors at production levels of scale (sensors aren’t yet where they need to be, even in the lab environment; see our research into making them better here), they must be inferred using mathematical models of electrochemistry, running in real-time. Current, voltage and temperature measurements are still necessary, but those parameters are no longer the end goal. Instead, the desired outcome is high-fidelity control of the internal battery states which are being estimated in real-time with a mathematical battery model implemented as software. 

We call our model PHI X2. PHI X2 is a platform technology, it’s the base for our initial products: Breathe Charge and Breathe Life, and it’s our unfair advantage.

With PHI X2, we focus on five key battery model attributes:  

• Easy calibration: enables rapid adaption to customers' newest battery chemistry nodes, helping us facilitate tight product launch targets and long-duration maintenance contracts.
  

• Compatible with computationally low-power microcontrollers: enables backward compatibility with existing devices or vehicles already on the market, and for upcoming product launches, straightforward integration with no hardware changes.
  

• Low development time: the end goal is the simplest model that makes batteries and consumers happier. Over-engineering models beyond what’s absolutely necessary delays their impact and compounds the problem of lagging battery progress. Our industry is guilty of this, and traditionally there’s been a gulf between battery modelling and product.
  

• Lifetime robustness: solve the single design point problem to exploit all of the potential in the battery materials at every point in their life, while simultaneously treating the battery gently as it ages. Health adaptive control is just smart.
  

• Minimum number of internal state estimates: infer only what matters and nothing more – our “size zero” model concept – to focus on resilience, avoid overfitting, and spend our energy on providing product managers with special system-level performance.

We’ve combined these 5 attributes in the most balanced, scalable, and resource-efficient way possible, disrupting traditional academic and industry approaches.

From our PHI X2 platform, we built 2 flagship products:  

Breathe Life, which offers charge current control that dynamically manages the electrochemical states inside the battery to enhance cycle life and average state of health. It helps retain pristine system performance for longer and enhances longevity. This is what enables the Oppo Reno8 Series to retain 80% of its capacity after 4 years instead of 2.

And Breathe Charge, which also controls the charging current at every instant. By dynamically managing internal electrochemical states, it increases charging speed while simultaneously adapting to the evolving battery health to enhance safety. It helps VARTA’s EasyBlade reach 50% state of charge in 43% less time with zero impact on the battery life. 

Doing more with the power we have.

Through our technology development, we got to meet the most inspirational and impactful scientists in the field –  those who literally wrote the books on battery modelling: Dr Matthieu Dubarry and Professor Gregory Plett. Back when I was falling in love with colourful NiMh packs I was ignorant to dQ/dV and those wonderful green and blue hardbacks, but today, I couldn’t be prouder that Dr Dubarry and Dr Plett are active members of our Scientific Advisory Board at Breathe. 

With our technology and our research pipeline at Breathe, we are now pioneering the next wave of battery performance and control.

We feel it most when our customers arrive in our battery lab, the largest facility of its kind in London, producing over 4,800 hours of validation data daily, and see their battery charge time fall, or their cycle life increase. The performance gains empower them to design more competitive products. Data says something incomparably convincing. 

We’ve designed the lab to precisely replicate real-world scenarios of our customer battery systems and align with their rigorous product qualification standards.

For our automotive customers, we replicate compression and forced liquid cooling conditions up to the battery module level. For our consumer electronics customers, we track thickness and temperature rise across cells and packs. In each case we’re working in partnership with our customer to qualify and demonstrate adherence across swelling thresholds, thermal budgets, balancing, and the array of metrics required to advance what it means to be class-leading in laptops, smartphones, headphones, and electric cars. 

We love to run demos on live systems so our customers can see the potential and how this can dramatically improve their end-user experience. This is the aha moment. This is what fuels us. Often, we support our customers to get a better handle on their existing battery system performance, too, providing benchmarks and analysis to demonstrate not only the upside of Breathe Charge and Breathe Life, but also to more concretely describe the end-user experience with the customer’s existing control strategies.  

Scaling toward our vision.

We resolutely believe this is the time for full-on ambition, the moment in history to spend energy executing on bold and transformational ideas to make batteries better. We’re pumped to be here today, with the prep work behind us, ready for prime time. 

If you’d like to share your battery system goals with us, you can do so here. If you’re looking to join a powerful team, you can do that here.

Ad Astra.
Dr Ian Campbell, Co-founder and CEO - Breathe.

Contact

Breathe Media Relations
Tel: +44 (0)2045 295647
media@breathebatteries.com

About Breathe

Breathe Battery Technologies (“Breathe”) is more than a battery performance company. Since being spun out of Imperial College in 2019, Breathe’s focus has been on building battery technology to contribute to a faster, better and more sustainable electrification of the world. 

Today, it provides a software toolchain for batteries that helps the world’s most iconic electric vehicle and consumer electronics brands do more with the power they have. Because an electrified future requires superior customer experiences. The company’s simulation and embedded software products encompass the full battery development lifecycle to enable the design, validation and optimisation of better batteries. 

Breathe Battery Technologies’ dream is that one day everyone will breathe clean air. That's why it makes batteries better. 

Breathe Battery Technologies has licensed its Breathe Life software to OPPO to enable the manufacturer’s unique ‘Battery Health Engine’. The Battery Health Engine was used for the first time in the world in OPPO’s Find X5 Series smartphones, and will be used as part of the Reno8 Series which launched in India and the Asia Pacific in July, and launches today in the UK and Europe.

Breathe Life provides the technology to help OPPO measure the negative electrode potential without introducing an additional sensor, enabling OPPO’s Battery Health Engine to dynamically avoid the damaging lithium plating process that causes smartphone battery deterioration.

As the software behind OPPO’s Battery Health Engine, Breathe Life enables the Reno8 Series to retain 90% capacity after two years and 80% capacity after four years of usage, the equivalent of 1600 charging cycles. This effectively doubles the lifetime of the device, as smartphone batteries typically retain 90% of their original capacity after just one year and 80% after two years.

“On each generation of Reno series we want to find new ways to provide our customers with the best user experience. The market-leading Battery Health Engine of Reno8 Series includes the most durable smartphone devices on the market. This not only benefits our customers, who will be able to use their handsets for several years without worrying about battery deterioration after just one year, but it will also benefit the planet by increasing the lifetime of the product", says Edward Tian, Head of the Charging Technology Lab at the Oppo Research Institute. 

With an increasing global focus on extending the lifetime of consumer electronics to reduce waste, the enhanced battery performance will also make the Reno8 Series some of the most sustainable smartphones in the world.

Dr Ian Campbell, CEO at Breathe Battery Technologies, comments: “Smartphones and laptops should be designed to last. Poor battery longevity is a major global sustainability issue, and at Breathe we’re building the technologies to overcome it. Our Breathe Life product makes smartphone and laptop batteries healthier and longer lasting, which will help to significantly reduce the amount of electronic waste across the world. At the same time, our clients benefit from faster time to market, reduced warranty risk, and can offer their customers a completely unique battery experience. It’s been fantastic to work with OPPO to apply our Breathe Life technology to enable its new Battery Health Engine in its Reno8 Series smartphone.” 

Breathe Life is one of Breathe's flagship products, alongside Breathe Charge, which significantly reduces charging times. Both products are built on Breathe's market-leading PHI X2 battery model architecture.

“The market-leading Battery Health Engine of Reno8 Series includes the most durable smartphone devices on the market. This not only benefits our customers, who will be able to use their handsets without worrying about battery deterioration, but it will also benefit the planet. We look forward to a continued partnership with Breathe Battery Technologies to further explore opportunities for the wider uptake of the healthy battery technologies.”

Edward Tian,
Head of the Charging Technology Lab of
OPPO Research Institute