Breathe Simulate is a physics-based battery simulation platform. It helps engineering teams understand battery performance over time. It also tracks how degradation evolves across battery life. Teams use it to evaluate performance limits and battery ageing behaviour. They can also complete battery lifetime risk evaluation. Best of all, this happens long before long-duration testing is complete.
Why simulation matters
Breathe Simulate supports electrochemical battery degradation modelling and lithium-ion cycle life optimisation without relying on physical testing alone.
Many behaviours that determine battery performance originate inside the cell. Furthermore, they cannot be directly observed through testing alone. Because of this, teams often rely on late-stage test results and conservative assumptions. Therefore, Breathe Simulate brings that insight forward. It gives engineers a physics-based view of how electrochemical behaviour and degradation mechanisms shape real-world battery performance.
Built for engineering workflows
Breathe Simulate is delivered as a Python API. This allows straightforward integration into existing engineering workflows and analysis environments. In addition, optional MATLAB compatibility supports established modelling toolchains. Consequently, teams across cell, system, and vehicle engineering can analyse battery performance and degradation within their existing workflows.
What Breathe Simulate is
Breathe Simulate is a physics-based battery cell simulation platform. It is built for OEM engineering teams analysing performance limits and degradation behaviour across battery life.
First, it provides a validated electrochemical representation of the cell. This exposes the internal states that govern voltage response, thermal behaviour, resistance growth, and ageing mechanisms.
Each model is parameterised for the customer’s chosen cell and operating window. This uses sub-cell characterisation and full-cell testing. As a result, the model reproduces real hardware behaviour accurately.
Once parameterised, engineers can simulate performance and degradation across operating conditions. Therefore, they no longer need to rely solely on long-duration laboratory testing.
How engineers use Breathe Simulate in practice
Evaluate performance under real operating conditions
Engineers use Breathe Simulate to analyse how battery behaviour changes across duty cycles, temperatures, and load conditions.
Typical outputs include voltage response under load and temperature evolution. Furthermore, engineers can track resistance growth with ageing. In addition, the model exposes internal electrochemical states linked to degradation. Moreover, it is validated across vehicle duty cycles, fast-charging events, and high-power pulses.
Furthermore, the model is validated across the operating conditions that matter most. These include vehicle duty cycles, fast-charging events, and high-power pulses.
Connect degradation insight to system work
Breathe Simulate helps engineers propagate degradation-aware cell behaviour into system-level battery studies.
Specifically, teams use it to understand how ageing affects power capability and charging performance. They also assess how degradation influences control strategies. Furthermore, they propagate lifetime behaviour into pack- and vehicle-level analysis. As a result, this reduces translation loss between teams.
As a result, this reduces translation loss between teams.
Understand variability, not just a nominal cell
Real battery cells vary due to manufacturing tolerances, material differences, and degradation behaviour.
However, Breathe Simulate captures this variability through parameter sets rather than separate models. This allows engineers to analyse performance spread, ageing variability, and edge cases.
Consequently, teams can plan for fleet-wide behaviour, not just the behaviour of a nominal cell.
What engineers typically explore first
Example questions explored in the first week
In the first week, teams often use Breathe Simulate to ask:
- How does lithium plating risk change under different fast-charging strategies?
- In what ways does cell behave across our actual vehicle duty cycle?
- What happens to voltage limits, power capability, and thermal behaviour?
- To what extent is degradation to real-world operating conditions?
- Across a fleet, how much variability in lifetime performance should we expect across cells?
- Which degradation mechanisms dominate performance loss over time?
Therefore, these questions help teams move from generic durability assumptions to application-specific understanding.
These outputs are generated directly from the physics-based model and can be used for analysis, comparison, and downstream system work.
Outputs
| Potential Bus (Φ) | voltModel |
| voltAnode | |
| voltCathode | |
| ocvModel | |
| ocvAnode | |
| ocvCathode | |
| tempSurfaceModel | |
| States Bus (x) | socModel |
| socAnode | |
| socCathode | |
| Flux Bus (J) | currCell |
| heatflowModel |
What teams often learn early
Teams often uncover which performance limits originate from electrochemical behaviour rather than system constraints. In addition, they identify where conservative assumptions may be limiting usable operating margin. Furthermore, they learn how degradation pathways influence lifetime performance. Finally, they discover which operating strategies accelerate or mitigate ageing.
As a result, this early understanding helps engineering teams focus development effort before hardware decisions are locked in.
From cell insight to system-level confidence
Breathe Simulate answers system-level questions quickly. It shows how cell-level behaviour affects battery performance. It also tracks how degradation develops across battery life.
Built on an enhanced thermally coupled Single Particle Model with Electrolyte (SPMe), the platform enables engineers to:
- Conduct sensitivity analysis on cell parameters
- Quantify the impact of parameter variation on performance and degradation
- Simulate degradation modes such as LLI and LAM
- Evaluate how ageing shifts thermal and fast-charging limits
- Translate cell-level behaviour into system-level battery insight
In addition, each model is delivered fully parameterised and validated. Transparent validation results are provided across the operating window.
Where Breathe Simulate fits
Breathe Simulate supports battery development from early investigation through ongoing optimisation.
It is particularly valuable when teams need to build early insight into degradation pathways and their system-level impact. Moreover, it helps estimate lifetime impact before extensive validation data is available. Teams can also stress-test control strategies against aged cell states. Finally, it helps inform system, control, and vehicle-level battery decisions.
Explore Breathe Simulate
If you’re developing cells or making early system and vehicle decisions, talk to us about how Breathe Simulate can support your workflow.