LG Energy Solution’s battery management business gains traction

LG Energy Solution Ltd. has kicked off a battery management total solution (BMTS) business to offer automakers more advanced and comprehensive battery management services amid growing demand for safe electric vehicle batteries following a series of battery fires.

On Thursday, the South Korean battery giant unveiled its new business brand called "B.around," which offers not only battery condition monitoring software but also a safety and battery degradation diagnostics program and software-defined vehicle (SDV) platforms.

“We have long been striving to develop (battery) safety diagnostics systems and are set to become a company that goes beyond battery manufacturing to provide solutions for the safe use of batteries with battery management software,” Lee Dal-hoon, vice president and head of the BMS R&D Center at LG Energy Solution, said at the Korea Advanced Battery Conference 2024 (KABC 2024) on the same day.

The company recently vowed to explore opportunities beyond battery manufacturing to extend its customer value and promote safer use of batteries.

The launch of the new BMTS business unit also comes at a time when battery safety has become a hot button following a series of EV battery fires, which have made consumers avoid EVs.   

To revive EV demand, global automakers are actively seeking measures to ease worries about EV and battery safety, including Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp.'s disclosure of their EV battery suppliers and permanent battery safety inspection service offers.

LG Energy Solution plans to sell B.around products to finished car and EV makers from around the world.

"LG Energy Solution is the only battery manufacturer to provide a management service for the battery's entire lifecycle, including BMS solutions," said Brandon Kim, head of the BaaS Business Development Department at LG Energy Solution.

B.AROUND IN CHARGE OF THE ENTIRE BATTERY LIFETIME

B.around offers battery management system (BMS) software, BMS hardware and solutions for software-defined vehicle (SDV) platforms.

BMS is designed to detect battery abnormalities by monitoring battery conditions and notifying vehicle owners of any issues to ensure optimal performance and safe use.

But B.around offers more advanced and comprehensive AI-powered BMS services than conventional BMS services, LG Energy Solution said.

Its safety diagnostics software preemptively detects and alerts users of any abnormal signs like high risk of thermal events, while the battery degradation diagnostics software examines and predicts a battery's future capacity.

The SDV platform services are backed by system-on-chip (SoC), cloud and AI computing technologies.

A SDV is a vehicle that manages its operations, adds functionality and enables new features primarily or entirely through software.

LG Energy Solution is working with Qualcomm Technologies to develop SoC-based SDV technology jointly.

The company is developing SDV platforms after successfully testing SOC-based SDV operations, said Lee.

The strength of B.around’s BMTS services lies at LG Energy Solution’s massive battery data collected and analyzed from more than 130,000 battery cells and 1,000 battery modules thanks to its decades-long battery manufacturing history.

The company has applied its BMS software to more than 100,000 global top 10 finished carmakers' EVs, allowing it to secure enough data. Hyundai Motor, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV are among the 10 carmakers.

Using AI algorithms in the cloud, LG Energy Solution has secured a safety detection accuracy rate of over 90% and a margin of error of less than 1%, which is the industry's best, the company said.

It boasts more than 8,000 BMS-related patents.

In June, it also signed a memorandum of understanding with US chipmaker Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) to enhance its BMTS capabilities.

The Korean battery maker plans to offer battery-as-a-service (BaaS) products under the B.around brand. 

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at k@hankyung.com

Sookyung Seo edited this article.