SAE Automotive Engineering Podcast
Oct 14, 2026 · 25 min · 10 segments
Roberto, Chris, and Sebastian meet up at the annual Battery Show in Detroit, Michigan, to talk about the show and what it means for batteries and battery production in the near and far future.
Roberto BaldwinHost
Sebastian BlancoHost
Chris ClontzHost
So, uh, when you go to a keynote at an event like this, especially the opening one, it, it helps set the stage, and, you know, it just sets the tone for what we're gonna hear over these next few days.
Um, and then the things that fall out from that, which is just, like, the, the overall speed and, and, uh, like, posit- or optimism that these peop- these speakers had about the indust- the battery industry in the US and in North America.
We are losing." And, um, Kurt Kelty from GM, he [laughs] made the point that, um...
Um, he said they have over 20,000 engineers, that's one company just working on batteries, and an R&D budget of $3 billion a year.
You know, I, I've been, been told by people, uh, in the industry, they're like, "China's ahead of us.
They're, like, 10 years ahead of us, and they're not gonna slow down or let us catch up."
Like, we either have to accelerate or we just play catch up for the, you know-
And given that we're at a battery show, it's not surprising that the people who I heard this morning and the people I've talked to since then are comparing this to, you know, like, in the Ice Age [laughs] wh- every car was powered by in- internal combustion engines.
So, uh, when you go to a keynote at an event like this, especially the opening one, it, it helps set the stage, and, you know, it just sets the tone for what we're gonna hear over these next few days.
Um, and then the things that fall out from that, which is just, like, the, the overall speed and, and, uh, like, posit- or optimism that these peop- these speakers had about the indust- the battery industry in the US and in North America.
We are losing." And, um, Kurt Kelty from GM, he [laughs] made the point that, um...
Um, he said they have over 20,000 engineers, that's one company just working on batteries, and an R&D budget of $3 billion a year.
You know, I, I've been, been told by people, uh, in the industry, they're like, "China's ahead of us.
They're, like, 10 years ahead of us, and they're not gonna slow down or let us catch up."
Like, we either have to accelerate or we just play catch up for the, you know-
And given that we're at a battery show, it's not surprising that the people who I heard this morning and the people I've talked to since then are comparing this to, you know, like, in the Ice Age [laughs] wh- every car was powered by in- internal combustion engines.
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