BCI 2026, the annual conference of the Battery Council International (BCI), opened today in the Omni Hotel, Nashville, Tennessee, US, with an address from the president and executive director of BCI, Roger Miksad.
In his welcome greeting to the three-day conference, Miksad emphasised the role of the co-located Power Mart Expo, which, in his 13 years in the organisation is “the biggest, most vibrant, happy and exciting trade show floor I’ve seen in that time”.
Miksad then asked all delegates to stand up, under house lights, and introduce themselves to someone they had never met, and tell them the first concert they every attended, which led to some merriment, confusion and hubbub, before handing over to Mike Judd, BCI board chairman, and the CEO and president of Stryten Energy.
Judd used his address to frame the battery industry as increasingly central to both energy policy and national security, while urging members to focus on core operations and measurable improvements.
BCI 2026: the BCI advocating for batteries in Washington
He highlighted two strands of recent industry advocacy: encouraging companies to “tell your story” at a local level, and promoting the broader economic significance of batteries in Washington. This has elevated engagement with agencies such as the Department of Energy, which he said is seeking closer collaboration as grid stability concerns grow alongside rising demand and the shift to intermittent renewables. Batteries, he argued, are now embedded across the entire energy system, “from large grid-scale installations… all the way down to the light bulb in your house”.
Judd pointed to increasing interest from defence stakeholders, reflecting the electrification of modern warfare and demand for high-performance battery capacity. These developments, he suggested, position the industry as a strategic partner across multiple sectors.
Looking to the future, he called for deeper engagement with national laboratories, universities and workforce development, alongside greater adoption of AI, machine learning and advanced automation in manufacturing. However, he stressed that innovation should not come at the expense of established product lines: “we make America start and run”, he said, urging companies to prioritise the core technologies that “pay the rent”.
On environmental, health and safety, Judd noted continued progress in reducing worker blood lead levels, but questioned whether existing metrics – such as airborne lead concentrations – remain adequate, suggesting a need for new benchmarks. He also raised the issue of global stewardship of lead, arguing that poor practices in some regions risk reputational damage for the entire industry: “There are other countries that really struggle in this category. Should we be steward of this?”
Despite rapid development in lithium-based chemistries, Judd concluded that traditional battery technologies remain resilient and growing, with opportunities across transport, industrial and military markets: “The future is very bright for this industry, and it’s not slowing down but getting bigger every day.”
BCI 2026: keynote presentation
John Ellis, president of Codethink, told BCI 2026 delegates the battery sector must prepare for a shift from electrification to “intelligence”, in which batteries are judged less as stand-alone products and more by the systems they support.
Coming in to a soundtrack of REM’s 1987 single It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine), Ellis stressed that he was “not a battery person” but a software executive who had lived through disruption in other industries. His warning was that the battery industry faces converging pressures from AI, automation, autonomy, IoT, software, data and storage. “The future battery market… is gonna be shaped not by the selling of a battery, but by the systems that those batteries serve,” he said.
He argued that incumbents should not assume scale or history will protect them. Drawing on examples including AT&T, Kodak (who missed the curve on mobile phones and digital cameras) and Tesla (who rode the wave by making its Model S better over time through over-the-air updates), Ellis said disruption “does not punish incumbency. It punishes slow adaptation.” Battery companies, he said, have strong advantages in manufacturing depth, customer trust, installed bases, recycling infrastructure and quality discipline, but these assets could become liabilities if they harden into inertia.
A central theme was the move from “ship and forget” products to “ship and remember” products: digitally enabled batteries and systems that can be monitored, updated, proven, optimised and serviced throughout their lives. Customers, he said, will increasingly demand evidence on origin, compliance, degradation, recoverability and performance, not just chemistry or capacity.
Ellis set out five priorities: digitise the whole value chain, treat data as a customer-facing asset, embed traceability and proof throughout operations, use AI and automation carefully to improve speed and resilience, and make adaptability a leadership discipline.
His closing message was blunt: “The curve is not gonna ask your permission before it bends.” The battery sector, he said, has the tools to shape its own future, but must become “comfortable with being uncomfortable”.
Main photo: Mike Judd, BCI board chairman, and the CEO and president of Stryten Energy at BCI 2026 in Nashville
Credit: James Snodgrass
