H&Z
H&Z Management Consulting - Consulting with head, heart and hand
03/09/2024

Innovation & Technology

Defining the short-cut to a European Battery Gigafactory

H&Z leads the technical program management office for a European Gigafactory start-up to define timing, organisation, product specification and technology, and production processes to create a sound business plan for go-to-market and execution.

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.

Get in touch

If you would like to find out about your companies opportunities in the European battery industry, we are there to chart your way forward.

Tobias Stahl

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Tobias Stahl