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Subhash Dhar | Founder & CEO | American Battery Solutions Inc

American Battery Solutions: Pioneering the Advanced Automotive Battery Experience

As more automobile manufacturers are moving towards a zero-emission footprint, the automotive industry’s future seems firmly and inevitably grounded in mass electrification. The path towards sustainability is shifting tides towards a more electrified powertrain solutions offering innovative, reliable and cost-competitive solutions. Achieving full electrification is going to be the key for the future of transportation. American Battery Solutions Inc., (ABS) has assembled a strong and expansive asset base of battery design & manufacturing talent as well as state-of-the-art manufacturing support to execute on its strategy.

ABS shares the vision of creating a clean future, leading the transition from internal combustion to electric with a focus on medium and heavy-duty vehicle electrification including grid-connected ESS. To enable this mission, the leadership at ABS is making extensive efforts, to further develop and provide its technology-based solutions to the advanced automotive battery industry.

Subhash Dhar, the Founder & CEO of American Battery Solutions Inc., is a pioneer in developing and commercializing advanced energy storage technologies. He has invested over 40 years in the battery industry with pioneering work in advanced battery systems, and has a track record of success with commercialization, JVs, licensing, and building world-class yeam of high-performance engineers.

Insights Success came across American Battery Solutions in its endeavor to find “The Top 10 Most Promising EV Solution Providers of 2022.” We talked with Subhash to learn about the know-how of ABS’s making a significant difference.

Below are the highlights of the interview:

Give us a brief overview of your American Battery Solutions, its mission, and the key aspects of its strong foothold in the transportation industry.

American Battery Solutions (ABS) was founded with the goal of developing and offering automotive quality, engineered, and manufactured battery packs to those segments of the market that the “big” cell makers were not servicing. As the market is set for massive growth over the coming decade, many companies need access to a high-quality, US-manufactured battery packs. By partnering with cell OEMs, we are able to service both small volume and higher volume vehicles and applications.

Our strength is based in our people; we have an amazing depth of technical expertise with team members that have worked on nearly every major electrification project going all the way back to the original Nickel-Metal Hydride batteries that were used in the GM EV1 and Toyota Prius programs.

Describe your top-notch offerings that address the need of your customers.

We 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™, a family of 24V and 48V, 2kWh and 3kWh modules for industrial vehicles, light electric, and golf carts. In late 2022 we will launch our first standardized Proliance Intelligent Battery Series™ family of batteries, beginning with a 350V 50kWh pack for commercial vehicles and following with a 350V 100kWh pack and a 665V 110kWh pack for heavy duty commercial vehicles. In late 2023 ABS will also be launching it’s first ESS solution more to come on that soon.

What makes your American Battery Solutions a preferred choice among your clientele over other competitors?

ABS is a hub of talent, technology, manufacturing and know-how with more than 335 years of expertise in this field. This level and depth of expertise allows us to work with our partners to really understand their needs and find a solution that is optimized for them. In some cases, our standardized product is a great fit, but when they aren’t, our depth of knowledge allows us to develop customized solutions to meet their needs.

How is American Battery Solutions improving the customer experience with its automotive quality DNA?

ABS is applying aspects of the automotive engineering process to the product development process there-by driving customer requirements early in the process and validating against those. We also ensure all products are validated to international standards supporting markets whose development has historically lagged the automotive market by several years. This gives our customers a “leg up” on their competition.

Describe the values that drive your organization.

Teamwork and appreciation of our people, customers, and partners. We work together to find solutions to problems and recognize our team members’ contributions. We also work to develop the next generation of battery experts by bringing in new talent and training them.

In your opinion, what could be the future of the transportation market post the COVID-19 pandemic? And how are you strategizing your company’s operations for that future?

We are already seeing some changes in the post-COVID-19 world. The automotive and transportation markets are moving more quickly towards electric than we expected. But the supply base is also changing; we are finding there is more demand for locally produced components and systems. As one of the few independent battery pack manufacturers in North America, we are able to competitively supply to our customers from right here in the US.

As we look at global growth strategies, we anticipate expanding our operations to several other regions where we can continue to grow and partner with our customers to develop local content.

In what ways have you or your company contributed to the community?

ABS contributes to the communities we operate in several ways. First, our growth means that we bring good-paying jobs into the regions we are based in. In some cases, this has meant re-filling jobs that had been eliminated prior to our taking over the facilities we are in today. Secondly, ABS is involved with our local colleges, universities, and trade schools, bringing in interns and hiring from these groups to help grow the next generation of battery engineers. Third, the ABS team members have big hearts and support local charities and families in need throughout the year.

What are your future aspirations? Where do you see your American Battery Solutions in the next five years?

In the next five years, we expect to see some major growth as we launch new products and enter new markets. While we started our journey focusing on transportation, we are now in the development of the next generation of grid energy storage solutions. We have brought on an amazing team with deep knowledge in the grid ESS space who are leading us into these new markets and applications.

Beyond that, we are already looking into next-generation technologies, including wireless BMS, cell-to-pack, and advanced chemistries for our future generations of batteries. As these technologies become market-ready, we are prepared to bring them to market.

ABS anticipates announcing several major projects in the first half of 2022, including programs in the bus, delivery vehicle, marine, grid, and mining markets.