Defining the short-cut to a European Battery Gigafactory

Client Challenge

The client is an investor-backed start-up aiming to produce lithium-ion battery cells for application in mobility and beyond. 

As the team sets up, it faces several challenges:

• Unclear market potential (target customers, applications)
• Lack of proprietary IP in product and production technology
• Uncertainty towards the required resources and capabilities for the different phases of operation

H&Z Approach

H&Z leveraged their expertise in automotive battery from production technology, product specification and requirements to technology trends, market forecasts and applications for lithium-ion batteries to set up and run the technical program management office for the client. The H&Z team set up five work streams to ensure project progress and quality of results:

1. Timeplan and business case
2. Applications and target customers
3. Product technology
4. Production technology
5. Organisation

Across these workstreams, H&Z established a detailed time- and business plan for the start-up to go to market with a competitive product. This included a comprehensive profiling of technologies, competitors and potential customers to form a holistic picture. Beyond that, it included a process modelling of the production and material flow as well as the required organisation.

Results

During the course of eight months, the H&Z team developed a clear go-to-market strategy for the battery Gigafactory start-up to convince investors and approach target customers. The fundamental deliverables were the following:

• Creation of an automotive OEM-specific time plan for the from scratch to the first product
• Negotiation of a license agreement with a cell technology provider
• Elaboration of the product requirements for the first product
• Definition of a product and production technology roadmap, aligned with technology provider
• Definition of organisational ramp-up (incl. roles and responsibilities)
• Development of a client-specific market model (define addressable market, identify target customers)

• Modelling of production and material flows in line with targeted production capacity

   

Based on the results delivered by H&Z, the start-up was capable to make meaningful adjustments to its strategy and driving the ramp-up of European battery production.