Building Europe’s Battery Ecosystem: Key Takeaways from EUSEW 2026

On 10 June 2026, the BMS Alliance cluster co-hosted a session at the European Sustainable Energy Week in Brussels, together with BEPA. Titled “Competitive by Design: Strengthening Europe’s Battery Value Chain Resilience”, the session brought together EU institutions, industry leaders, and Horizon-funded projects for a candid exchange on what it will actually take to secure Europe’s position in batteries.

Here is what we took away.

Competitiveness is not just about capacity, it is about mastery

One of the clearest threads running through the session was that announcing gigafactories is not the same as building industrial capability. Matthieu Hubert (ACC) was direct: ACC is producing real batteries for real customers at its gigafactory near Brussel. The performance is not the problem, the challenge is cost competitiveness. If we are not competitive on the cost of energy and raw materials,he noted, the battery will be expensive regardless

Franz Geyer (BMW Group) echoed the same logic from the OEM perspective: the products are competitive, but the cost gap with Asian producers remains a structural challenge, compounded by regulatory complexity, climate pressures, and the pace of technological change.

Bozorg Khanbaei (BEPA) added an important dimension: manufacturing excellence is not just a cost question. “You cannot make cheap batteries if you do not know how to make batteries; but if you do know how to make them, then you can make cheap ones too.” The argument for gigafactories is ultimately an argument for acquiring and retaining industrial knowledge in Europe. And that knowledge, Mr Khanbaei was clear, cannot be built in isolation: it requires an ecosystem where manufacturing, research, recycling, and policy reinforce one another. Investing in one pillar without the others leaves the whole structure exposed.

Batteries do not exist in isolation and neither does the ecosystem

If there was one idea that cut across every contribution at the session, it was this: Europe will not build a competitive battery sector by optimising individual links in the chain. It needs the whole chain to work together.

Bozorg Khanbaei (BEPA) made the point explicitly: the priority should be continued investment in innovation that integrates all parts of the value chain, but stays agile enough to respond to a rapidly shifting demand landscape. That means not locking in on a single chemistry or application too early, maintaining a portfolio of technologies, and ensuring that research, manufacturing, and recycling capabilities develop in parallel rather than in sequence.

Maitane Berecibar (VUB) reinforced this from a research infrastructure perspective. A functioning battery ecosystem requires the physical and institutional scaffolding without which knowledge cannot be generated, tested, or retained in Europe. The challenge is not the absence of effort but the need to ensure that effort is connected.

Karsten Mueller (IAV) brought the ecosystem argument down to the level of technology development. IAV’s work on cloud-based BMS, system-on-chip BMS, and AI battery functions all depends on data and partnerships across sectors and disciplines. No single organisation can generate the volumes of data or the range of expertise required. Collaboration is not a nice-to-have, it is an engineering necessity.

Demand is evolving and diversifying

While electric vehicles remain the primary demand driver, Mr Khanbaei highlighted a notable shift: stationary storage demand has grown significantly over the past year, driven by falling battery costs and more favourable policies. Looking further ahead, defence, robotics, aviation, and data centres are emerging as significant new demand sources, each with distinct technical requirements. This points to the need for a portfolio of battery chemistries and technologies rather than a single dominant solution. Ms Berecibar reinforced this, calling for continued research across LFP, lithium-ion, and other chemistries to understand which is best suited to which application.

Policy needs to be structural and specific

Jacek Truszczyński (DG GROW) outlined the policy logic underpinning the Battery Booster strategy: without domestic production, it is difficult to secure access to raw materials; without raw material security, technology mastery is fragile. He described a gradual approach under the Accelerator Act – starting with procurement options that favour EU-made cells, then progressively extending requirements to cathode materials.

The session in context

For NEMO, whose work on advanced BMS sits at the intersection of modelling, safety, and system integration, the session was a timely reminder of the industrial stakes behind the research. The questions debated are precisely the questions that projects like NEMO exist to help answer.

NEMO’s final project event is planned for autumn 2026. Stay tuned for further details.

NEMO Consortium gathers in Neuchâtel as project enters Its final stretch

The NEMO consortium came together on 27–28 May 2026 for its General Assembly, hosted at the facilities of CSEM in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The meeting marked a significant moment for the project: with NEMO set to conclude in October 2026, this was one of the last opportunities for partners to meet in person and take stock of a shared journey that has pushed the boundaries of battery management system research.

Discussions covered the scientific and technical progress achieved across the project’s core workstreams, including advances in battery modelling and experimental testing. Partners also reviewed the outcomes expected before the project closes, ensuring the consortium is on track to deliver on its commitments to the European research community and its funding bodies.

The final months of NEMO will be marked by several key events. The project will be represented at the EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) session on 10 June 2026, offering a platform to share results with a broader European audience. A final project event is planned for autumn 2026 — more details will be announced soon, so stay tuned.

New scientific publications are also on the horizon, as the team continues to reach milestones and formalise results. Readers can expect further papers in the coming months.

The General Assembly also included a tour of CSEM’s testing facilities, giving partners a first-hand look at the experimental work carried out on BMS and BMS+ systems. It was a valuable reminder of the concrete, real-world dimension behind the project’s modelling and simulation work.

New model for predicting battery swelling under mechanical constraints

Lithium-ion batteries powering electric vehicles do not operate in isolation. Packed tightly into modules, they are subject to constant mechanical pressure, a design feature that improves stability and performance, but also introduces a hidden risk: as cells charge and discharge, they swell and contract, generating fluctuating internal stresses that can crack electrodes, deform separators, and trigger dangerous side reactions, including internal short circuits and thermal runaway.

To address this challenge, researchers within the NEMO project from Graz University of Technology (TUG) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) have developed a novel P2D-based computational model that integrates lithium-ion transport dynamics with pressure-dependent parameters to accurately predict cell thickness changes under mechanical constraints — and does so without requiring real-time sensors during operation.

The model was validated against experimental data for a 1C discharge cycle at 0.164 MPa of external pressure. It achieved a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of just 6.87% in predicting cell thickness change — a strong result that demonstrates the model’s ability to bridge the gap between laboratory measurements and real-world battery pack conditions.

Crucially, unlike existing approaches that rely on embedded physical sensors or ignore mechanical boundary conditions altogether, this model is entirely simulation-based. It can therefore be integrated into battery management systems (BMS) and digital twin frameworks without hardware modifications, reducing cost and complexity.

This work, developed within the NEMO project framework, directly supports the development of next-generation battery management systems capable of accounting for mechanical stress in real time, improving safety assessment, extending battery lifetimes, and ultimately reducing the total cost of ownership of electric vehicles and stationary energy storage systems.

The full paper is available open access on Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/19554839

How mechanical deformation affects battery impedance responses

We are pleased to share that researchers from TUG – Graz University of Technology have published a new open-access scientific examining how mechanical deformation influences the electrochemical behaviour of lithium-ion batteries , a topic of growing importance for battery safety and performance in both automotive and stationary applications. The article, titled “Effects of Mechanical Deformation Depth and Size on the Electrochemical Impedance Response of Lithium-Ion Batteries”, is freely available online.

As interest in electrified transport and large-scale energy storage grows, understanding how batteries respond to mechanical stresses, such as impacts, compression, or structural deformation, is critical. Real-world battery systems encounter mechanical loads during vehicle use, vibration, installation, and packaging constraints, and these loads can alter internal cell behaviour in ways that affect both performance and safety.

In this study, the authors use electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to analyse how different depths and sizes of mechanical deformation affect battery impedance responses. EIS is a widely used diagnostic technique in battery research that provides insights into internal resistance, charge transfer processes, and degradation mechanisms. By systematically varying mechanical deformation conditions and observing the resulting impedance spectra, the paper demonstrates that cell mechanical state can meaningfully influence impedance signatures, which has important implications for battery diagnostics, modelling, and real-time state assessment.

The findings highlight the need to consider mechanical effects alongside electrical and thermal factors in battery models and management systems. This is particularly relevant for applications where batteries are subject to repeated or unexpected mechanical stresses, for instance in automotive environments with road vibrations and crash scenarios, or in stationary systems where pack compression and thermal expansion occur over long lifetimes.

Understanding how mechanical deformation alters EIS responses also supports more robust implementations of diagnostic algorithms and state-of-health estimators that are used in battery management systems (BMS). By integrating such insights into advanced models, researchers and engineers can improve the reliability of battery condition monitoring and enhance safety margins in both design and operation.

The paper contributes to a broader effort across the research community to link physical deformation, internal electrochemistry, and observable electrical behaviour, making it a valuable reference for those working on battery modelling, diagnostics, and integrated BMS solutions.

Read the full article: https://zenodo.org/records/18594080

Bringing battery impedance diagnostics into the real world: opportunities and limits

Researchers involved in the EU-funded project NEMO have published a new peer-reviewed scientific paper in the Journal of Power Sources, addressing a critical challenge in modern battery management: the practical applicability of online Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) for real-world battery systems.

The article “Practical considerations and limitations of online Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy for battery systems management” provides an in-depth and methodical analysis of how EIS-based diagnostics behave when moved from controlled laboratory conditions to operational battery electronics and embedded systems.

From theory to practice in battery electronics

Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy is widely recognised as a powerful tool for characterising battery behaviour, enabling insights into internal processes related to ageing, degradation, temperature effects, and state-of-health estimation. As such, EIS is often proposed as a key enabler for advanced battery electronics and next-generation battery management systems (BMS).

However, implementing EIS online and in real time introduces non-trivial constraints. The paper systematically examines these constraints, focusing on issues such as measurement accuracy under dynamic operating conditions, signal perturbations caused by load variations, hardware limitations, and the interpretability of impedance data when acquired during normal battery operation.

Rather than proposing EIS as a universal solution, the authors take a critical and evidence-based approach, clarifying when and how online EIS can provide reliable information and when it may lead to misleading conclusions if applied without sufficient safeguards or modelling support.

Relevance for NEMO and Advanced Battery Modelling

This contribution directly supports NEMO’s objective of developing next-generation models for advanced battery electronics, where accurate diagnostics must be tightly coupled with realistic system constraints. By identifying the boundaries of validity for online impedance measurements, the paper helps inform the design of robust battery models, control strategies, and electronic architectures that can operate safely and efficiently in real-world applications.

The publication is openly accessible: you can read it here: https://zenodo.org/records/18298276

Optimising real-time charging for e-micromobility devices

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new scientific article authored by researchers from the ETEC Department & MOBI Research Group at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), within the framework of the EU-funded NEMO project.

The paper, titled “Optimization of charging process for electric micromobility devices with real-time operation”, has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Results in Engineering (Elsevier) and is now openly available via Zenodo.

Advancing fast charging for e-micromobility

Electric micromobility, including e-bikes, electric scooters, and light-weight electric motorcycles, is a rapidly expanding segment of sustainable urban transport. However, fast charging these devices presents key technical challenges, particularly when operating within low-cost processors and limited cooling systems. Traditional optimisation algorithms often require high computational resources, making them impractical for real-time charging control in micromobility.

To address these barriers, the VUB team developed a novel optimised charging algorithm that integrates offline training with real-time operation. The algorithm leverages a balance between charging speed and battery thermal behavior, producing optimized policy maps based on a 1D electrothermal model and dynamic programming. Once trained offline, these maps can be efficiently interpolated on low-cost microcontrollers during real-time use.

Key results and performance improvements

Experimental validation on a 43 Ah battery demonstrated that the proposed strategy significantly improves charging performance compared with conventional constant-current approaches:

Charging time reduced by 8.5 %, without compromising battery temperature or state-of-charge profiles.
Robust stability across varying initial states of charge and environmental conditions.
Minimal execution time of ~0.44 ms on an 8-bit microcontroller, highlighting suitability for real-world low-cost applications.

These findings offer a significant step toward efficient, safe, and scalable charging strategies in the micromobility landscape, a critical enabler for broader adoption of electric transportation in urban environments.

EU funding and acknowledgements

This research was supported by the European Commission under the NEMO project. This paper is openly accessible and available through the Zenodo open repository.

Read the paper: https://zenodo.org/records/18174820