The Battery Buying Game Has Changed
For years, battery procurement followed a predictable formula: pick a chemistry, lock in a vendor, bake the design into your product, and move on. That model doesn’t work anymore.
Global tensions have turned batteries into a geopolitical weapon. Export controls shift quarterly. Tariffs on components from key countries spike overnight. And raw material access is increasingly dictated by government policy, not just market demand.
This shift isn’t unique to batteries. It mirrors what we’re seeing across aerospace, defense, and advanced manufacturing. Startups like Anduril and Shield AI are breaking the mold of decade-long defense programs with fast-cycle, mission-adaptable systems. SpaceX turned launch logistics into software-defined execution. Even in next-gen manufacturing, companies like Hadrian, Varda, and Relativity are showing how smaller teams with modular platforms can move faster than legacy giants.
Batteries are following the same path. The era of static chemistries, fixed pack formats, and years long redesigns is ending.
What’s replacing it? Modular, deployable power systems that adapt to supply chains, mission needs, and market shifts in real time.
The Problem: Fixed Battery Platforms Break Under Pressure
Most battery systems today are rigid by design.
They’re built around specific chemistries, usually lithium-ion cells with nominal voltages around 3.6 to 3.7 volts per cell. If your preferred chemistry becomes unavailable or unaffordable, you're facing a full-scale redesign. This means new hardware, firmware, and often scrambling to source new vendors.
Always, delays and uncertainty.
Consider a real-world scenario. A product team designs around sodium-ion cells for affordability and thermal safety. But months before launch, a 125% tariff hits their China-based supplier. They try to pivot to li-ion cells from South Korea, but the voltage profile doesn’t match. The pack architecture breaks. Hardware and software and now misaligned with product requirements. Certification timelines reset.
The product slips from a summer launch to next year—if it ships at all.
Rigid platforms weren’t built for this kind of volatility. That’s the problem.
At Proper Voltage, we built for a faster, more modular future. Battery control has historically been about preventing something going wrong, our Battery Operating System is about creating what’s possible.
It supports any chemistry without requiring a product redesign. It dynamically adapts how the battery needs to integrate, perform, and does that at an unmatched pace.
Where most systems require:
- Electrical and mechanical rework
- Thermal management redesigns
- Firmware and safety protocol changes
- New certifications
…we remove most of those obstacles. bOS handles voltage mismatches and chemistry variance so your engineering team doesn’t have to.
It’s the same principle playing out across the most innovative industries: move fast, modularize everything, and build systems that deploy quickly under changing conditions. That’s the Anduril mindset. The SpaceX cadence. The Hadrian approach.
Proper Voltage brings that model to batteries. We’re not building power systems for fixed, five-year procurement cycles. We’re building infrastructure for teams that want to ship fast, adapt instantly, and keep building through volatility.
Our supply chain reflects that philosophy. We’ve validated vendors across the U.S., Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. That multi-region flexibility isn’t a workaround. It’s core to how we operate.
We don’t pick winners. We make any battery work like one.
If you’re building a product that needs batteries, and you want it to launch on time and scale globally, this flexibility matters.
With Proper Voltage, you get:
- Chemistry optionality: Choose the best cell for performance, safety, cost, and availability.
- Tariff mitigation: Avoid price shocks or sudden sourcing disruptions.
- Faster integration: Modular architecture minimizes redesign cycles.
- Sourcing resilience: One disruption doesn’t derail your roadmap.
The hidden cost of rigidity isn’t just about dollars per cell. It’s engineering hours, certification delays, and missed launches. In competitive markets, that’s a killer.
As we look toward 2026 and beyond, supply chain nationalism isn’t going away. It’s accelerating.
Battery production is being drawn into a web of regional incentives, compliance standards, and national security goals. The companies that thrive won’t be the ones who bet everything on a single chemistry or supplier. They’ll be the ones who can adapt quickly, without pausing development or delaying delivery.
The ability to change direction without reworking the product will define the winners in the next hardware cycle.
In a Polarized World, Flexibility Wins
Product teams shouldn't have to be geopolitical analysts to ship on time.
At Proper Voltage, we’re building the battery backbone for fast-moving teams. Power systems that aren’t just safe and efficient, but adaptable, composable, and resilient to the volatility we all know is coming.
