Companies to Use AI to Test EV Batteries

­Battery-swap EV systems are anything but an impeccable solution, but software from AI startup Monolith will supposedly use machine learn to monitor batteries’ performance and diagnose and fix problems quicker.

EV manufacturer Nio has teamed up with the UK-based Monolith, whose Anomaly Detector AI software would allow them to perform a plethora of tests on the batteries each time they’re swapped out – according to Reuters, the software would check the batteries’ health, performance, and durability.

Either way, this is merely the next evolution for China’s Nio, which operates over 1,300 battery-swap stations in its home country, nor for Monolith, which already uses machine learning algorithms to test the batteries of some of the world’s top automakers like Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Honda.

In so doing, the latter allows Western automakers to speed up their development processes and hopefully catch up with their Chinese rivals, which leads the globe in lithium-ion batteries (amongst other things, like manufacturing).

Referring to the Western automakers, Monolith CEO Richard Ahlfeld said that "They're obviously way behind China so they need to learn really, really quickly…the Chinese want to push even faster, they're currently thinking 'okay, can we do it in one year?”

As it stands, it takes European automakers around 5 years to develop a new vehicle, while it only takes China 2.

Monolith and Nio are set to begin testing in five markets in Europe, with them potentially moving on to China next.