American Battery Solutions Inc.—Powering the next generation electrification

As the world progressively swaps fossil fuel power for emissions-free electrification, batteries are becoming a vital storage tool to facilitate the energy transition. Demand for lithium-ion batteries as energy storage and power electric vehicles (EVs) has seen exponential growth, increasing from just 0.5 gigawatt-hours in 2010 to around 526 gigawatt-hours a decade later. According to Bloomberg, demand for batteries is projected to increase 17-fold by 2030, bringing the cost of battery storage down.

American Battery Solutions is one of the companies powering the transformation from fossil fuels to emission-free electric energy sources through its lithium-ion battery solutions. They engineer, develop and manufacture lithium-ion battery systems for electric vehicles, electrified transportation, the industrial & commercial markets, and large-scale energy storage systems.

American Battery Solutions (ABS) specializes in industrial and commercial battery systems. From fully integrated battery

packs and off-the-shelf products to custom engineered solutions, they tailor their technologies and services to meet your precise needs.

Recently CIO Bulletin spoke to Subhash Dhar, the Founder, Chairman & CEO of American Battery Solutions Inc., about the firm’s growth, technological advancements, and more. The following are excerpts from the conversation.

Tell us more about American Battery Solutions’ offerings and what aspects make it stand out in the competitive market.

We develop, design, engineer, validate, and manufacture high-quality lithium-ion batteries and battery systems to serve the growing demands in electric vehicles (EV), electrified transportation, motive, industrial, commercial markets, and grid-connected energy storage systems (ESS).

ABS has launched our Alliance Intelligent Battery Series™ family of 24V and 48V, 3kWh modules for industrial vehicles, light electric, and golf carts. These are developed as “off-the-shelf” solutions that can quickly be integrated into

various applications. These solutions incorporate advanced safety features to protect the cells even in these industrial applications. The Industrial series of 3kWh batteries are in a standard GC2 lead acid form factor, and more importantly, it offers nearly 2x the energy of similar products on the market. It can often replace two or more of our competitor’s batteries, making them an excellent solution for OEMs with more than one vehicle they need to support.

This year we are launching the first of our ProLiance family of batteries, beginning with a 350V 50kWh pack for commercial, mining, agricultural and marine vessels. ProLiance is designed to be an “off-the-shelf” family of batteries for automotive safety, performance, quality, and manufacturing standards. The ProLiance family of products ranges from a 350V 50kWh pack for light and medium-duty commercial vehicles to a 650V 100kWh battery (coming soon) for use in medium and heavy-duty trucks and buses, and other commercial vehicles. These batteries will offer some of the highest energy density available today in a standardized pack fully integrated with BMS, electronics, and thermal management systems.

Q. How do you serve the growing demands in electric vehicles (EV), electrified transportation, industrial, and commercial markets?

ABS serves its customers in a variety of ways. We are seeing that customers are asking for products that are easy drop-in replacements for their current solutions, or they are asking for custom battery solutions. ABS’s standard family of high- and low-voltage products meets that need. With a standardized architecture of scalable and modular solutions, customers can easily integrate as much energy as they need for their application and use one part number across various products. 

ABS has developed a standardized family of Rechargeable Energy Storage System (RESS) solutions that use the highest energy density battery chemistries we call the ALLIANCE and ProLiance Intelligent Battery Series™. 

In developing these solutions, ABS has integrated the best available cells on the market with levels of safety designed from the cell up to the complete system. This includes managing single cell failures and preventing thermal runaway events, providing outstanding safety to our customers and end users.

Q. What are the upsides of your batteries?

One of the things our customers may not have known they needed in a lithium-ion battery was automotive quality components. In many of these markets, low-cost and short product lives have allowed lower-quality batteries to gain headway. However, these tend to need to be replaced more frequently. Once our customers realized they could buy a product that would last the life of their application, it was a game changer for them. The total cost of ownership (TCO) of an ABS battery system helps generate a payback and a positive business case for the customer.

Another upside is that ABS uses common architectures, allowing us to share components across customers and applications. This gives us better buying power and helps manage costs. Our focus is on high quality, high performance, long life, and product cost across various industries and applications.

Q. Can you please highlight the growth of ABS, and where do you see your American Battery Solutions in the next five years?

American Battery Solutions is headquartered in Lake Orion, MI, with ESS development in Hudson, MA, and manufacturing in Springboro, OH. We have grown to 165 people in 3 facilities in 3 ½ years. In that short time, we have installed three new production lines in our Springboro manufacturing facility and two prototype lines in our Michigan headquarters and Battery Innovation Center. This gives us more than 2GWh of capacity by early 2023, and we expect to quadruple that by 2025. The ABS team comprises some of the most experienced battery professionals worldwide across all functions, giving us 100s of years of battery design and manufacturing experience.

In the next five years, we expect significant growth as we launch new products and enter new markets. While we started our journey focusing on transportation, we are now developing the fifth generation of grid energy storage solutions. We have brought on a fantastic team with deep knowledge in the grid ESS space leading us into these new markets and applications.

Beyond that, the mobility team continues to look into next-generation chemistries and technologies, including wireless BMS, cell-to-pack, inherently safe cells, and advanced solid-state chemistries for future generation batteries. As these technologies become market-ready, we are prepared to bring them to market.

Enabling the transformation of emission-free energy through state-of-the-art technological innovations

Subhash Dhar is the Founder, Chairman & CEO of American Battery Solutions Inc. Mr. Dhar was the founding President of ECD-Ovonic Battery Company from 1982 through 2003.

Mr. Dhar has been involved in many aspects of alternative energy technology, including hydrogen generation, storage, and fuel cell. He is the co-inventor of over 40 US patents and has co-authored more than 45 technical papers.

Mr. Dhar was a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Battery Industry.

“ABS is serving underserved markets that require integrated battery solutions.”