As China’s automotive market accelerates, automakers in both Asia and the West are feeling the immense burden of drastically shorter vehicle development cycles. Traditionally, Western car makers would take more than four years from initial concept to consumer-ready product, while in China, new vehicles can now reach the market in as little as 18 months, intensifying pressure for quicker innovation.
At the heart of this industry shift are batteries—the costly and critical components that significantly affect the appeal and performance of electric vehicles. To meet the market demands, car manufacturers must anticipate production years ahead, an uncertain endeavour given the rapidly evolving landscape. Responding to this pressing challenge, UK-based startup Breathe Battery Technologies has positioned itself to deliver powerful insights and flexibility to battery usage through advanced software solutions.
The startup recently secured a $21 million Series B funding round led by Kinnevik Online AB, with participation from Lowercarbon Capital and Volvo Cars Tech Fund. This new funding will further strengthen Breathe’s efforts to integrate software innovations early into battery development cycles, providing automakers with tools that predict performance and enable smarter decisions.
Breathe currently markets four main software products: Charge, Model, Map, and the forthcoming Design suite. Their original offering, Charge, significantly improves charging efficiency and battery longevity by optimizing the charge strategy. Chinese smartphone manufacturer Oppo was among the first to leverage the technology, reportedly cutting its charging times by 27%. In the automotive sector, Volvo plans to utilize Breathe’s software in its upcoming ES90 sedan, achieving 10% to 80% charging in as short as 20 minutes.
A primary challenge for battery makers is that while manufacturing is strictly controlled, no two battery cells perform exactly alike. This variability forces trade-offs in battery management, as some cells may tolerate rapid charging better, while others may prove more durable over numerous charge cycles. Breathe’s software suite takes these discrepancies into account, optimizing the use of each unique cell to improve overall battery performance.
To help automakers make informed decisions sooner, Breathe established a sophisticated battery testing laboratory in London. By conducting extensive in-lab tests over only a few weeks, the firm can deliver highly accurate simulated battery lifespan and performance models to customers. This rapid data-driven approach eliminates much of the expensive, cumbersome laboratory testing automakers traditionally perform.
Following initial simulations, the batteries remain in testing for longer-term analysis, enabling Breathe’s additional tool, Map, to validate and refine predictive models using real-world observations. The pending launch of Breathe’s Design software seeks to further streamline battery development, heightening flexibility during the design process.
CEO Ian Campbell sees strong parallels between Breathe’s software solutions and those utilized by the semiconductor industry—where companies like Nvidia and Apple rely upon powerful simulation tools from Cadence and Synopsys to rapidly iterate their chip designs. His goal is similarly ambitious: to empower battery designers with the software-driven precision and speed that revolutionized chip manufacturing. “We want to bring that kind of clarity and efficiency into battery production,” Campbell explains, aiming for faster, cost-effective innovation in an industry that’s increasingly unable to afford delays.
