The European Union is miles ahead of the U.S. in terms of adopting electric vehicles (EVs). By 2026, the number of EVs sold in the EU is expected to exceed 4.4 million vehicles compared to 1.9 million domestically. All those EVs run on battery power, of course, but what if the battery suddenly loses power?

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That possibility led to the creation in 2018 of TWAICE, a Germany-based developer of analytics software optimizing the operation of lithium-ion batteries. Once a battery is deployed in a vehicle, knowing its health and status is crucial to manufacturers. TWAICE’s cloud analytics platform backs up the life cycle of EV batteries for customers like Audi, Daimler and scooter-maker Hero Motors. Munich Re backs up the predictions of an EV battery’s state of health (SoH) with its aiSure policy.

“A key factor in the electric vehicle transportation is the SoH of a battery to make an optimal decision when to replace it. The challenge for manufacturers is the need to remove the battery to manually test SoH at the plant or in a laboratory, which is time-consuming, expensive and not always possible,” said Michael Berger, who leads Munich Re’s Insure AI team of research scientists in structuring insurance-based performance guarantees for AI risks.

TWAICE’s AI platform can predict an EV battery’s SoH at all times, without the need for manual testing. To do this, the company creates a “digital twin” of a battery that simulates its operation. Continuous updates are made to the “twin’s” parameters to capture the SoH of the actual battery. In effect, TWAICE’s AI-enabled estimations of SoH help eliminate testing. To enhance its value proposition to EV manufacturers, TWAICE provides a performance guarantee. That’s where Munich Re comes into the picture.

“Through the aiSure product, we guarantee that the algorithms of the company’s AI models determining the SoH of a battery are accurate,” said Berger. “If the SoH is off by more than 2 percent, TWAICE’s customers are indemnified with eight times what they paid (for the battery). By covering the financial risks resulting from the prediction-based decisions, customers have more assurance of TWAICE’s technology.”