Like other forms of talent shortage, this one can be mitigated with better tools that empower companies to do more with less.īattery companies need to qualify battery suppliers. The good news? There are solutions to the problem that don’t involve hiring engineers that don’t exist. This includes retraining existing workforce, developing community college programs, and providing bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. Greg Less, technical director of the University of Michigan Battery Lab, has outlined why we need programs to educate battery experts at all levels. According to a statement released by Arizona State University, by 2025, America will have a shortage of engineers. These problems are only going to get worse. According to the same report, the top reason (cited by 38 % of respondents) for inefficiencies in existing battery processes is a lack of battery engineers. In a survey we conducted here at Voltaiq, 4 in 10 respondents mentioned a shortage of battery engineers as a constraint on their development efforts. And even this is a stopgap solution at best: “Demand is far outstripping supply when it comes to chemical engineers with lithium-ion experience,” says Allan Swan, the head of Panasonic’s US battery manufacturing unit based inside the Tesla gigafactory. The company has had to recruit and retrain non-battery engineers – chiefly chemical engineers – in order to keep their gigafactory in Nevada operating.

Panasonic, for example, has encountered an acute scarcity of battery experts and battery engineers. US automakers are spending billions to shift battery cell manufacture back to their home country, in order to meet what is anticipated to be rapidly expanding demand for electric vehicles over the next decade. Meanwhile, western companies are also feeling the heat. According to Reuters, these large Asian corporations are all struggling to fulfill rising demand for research and technical personnel. However, all of these nations – namely South Korea, China, and Japan – are currently facing a shortage of battery experts, which could hamper the global push toward zero-emission transportation infrastructure. According to Statista’s 2020 report, Korea’s LG and China’s CATL each accounted for just over a quarter of the worldwide lithium battery market, while Japan’s Panasonic supplied just more than 20%. Most of the world’s batteries are manufactured in Asia. The shortage of battery experts begins at the very start of the supply chain. That is why they have to find another solution to protect their economic futures. There simply aren’t enough battery experts. An EU-funded report points to a sharpening “demand for re-educating battery experts in the educational system as well as scaling-up (vocational) training for technicians.”Īnd the hard reality here is this: there is no way companies can hire their way out of this problem. Battery manufacturing companies are no exception in fact, as the epitome of a “knowledge-intensive industry,” they are squarely in the firing line. According to a Korn Ferry report, the global talent gap will reach 85.2 million workers by 2030, losing businesses trillions of dollars in economic opportunities. Global talent shortages are the worst they’ve been for 15 years, with 7 out of 10 organizations suffering the impacts. It raises the possibility of missed product launches, brand damage, and other ill effects. This is bad news for electrified businesses.

Why? Because the battery sector is facing a serious shortage of battery experts. Stories like this – stories about doing more with less – are more impactful than ever right now. By contrast, at their present company, Voltaiq gives them a similar capability with just two people. This VP had worked at Tesla earlier in their career, and told us that their group at Tesla had 100 people working on battery analysis. The Voltaiq team recently chatted with a VP at one of our transportation OEM customers during a regular customer visit.

Batteryexpert