OEM / ODM battery manufacturing

Build a LiFePO4 Battery Line Under Your Own Brand

Two routes: brand an existing certified platform, or engineer a new one. This page sets out which route fits your situation, what each level of customisation costs in MOQ, tooling and weeks, and what we will not agree to do.

Platforms available for private label
12.8 V / 25.6 V / 51.2 V / 256 V · portable · containerised

What this page answers

Eight questions, answered on the page rather than after an enquiry

Most OEM pages describe capability and leave the commercially important questions to a sales conversation. The answers below are the ones that decide whether a programme is viable, so they belong here.

Which route fits — OEM branding or ODM development
What changes at each customisation tier, and what it costs
What drives MOQ, tooling and lead time
How a custom configuration is validated before mass production
How batch five is kept identical to batch one
Who owns the tooling, the design and the certification
Which documents are issued, for which market
What happens when a unit fails at your customer's site

Route selection

OEM or ODM — the difference is who owns the engineering

Choosing wrongly is expensive in both directions. Taking the ODM route for what is really a branding exercise adds months and cost for no differentiation. Taking the OEM route when the market genuinely needs a different product produces a me-too item that competes only on price.

Route / OEM

Brand an existing platform

Our engineering, your brand. The platform is already designed, tested and documented; you configure it and put your identity on it.

Best when you are entering the category, testing a market, or competing on brand and distribution rather than on hardware.

Route / ODM

Engineer a new product

A product designed around a requirement that no existing platform meets — a different form factor, a different electrical envelope, a different market rule.

Best when the market has a requirement the catalogue cannot meet, and the volume justifies amortising development.

	OEM — branding a platform	ODM — new development
Design ownership	SafeCloud platform	Jointly defined, scope agreed in contract
Typical time to first shipment	Weeks	Months
Tooling investment	None to minimal	Required where a new enclosure is involved
Certification	Builds on existing platform evidence	New testing against the new configuration
MOQ	Baseline	Higher — development has to be amortised
Change flexibility later	High — swap platform or capacity	Lower — locked once tooled and tested
Differentiation	Brand, channel, service, support	Hardware, form factor, electrical envelope

Customisation tiers

Every change has a price in MOQ, tooling and weeks

A quotation that gives one MOQ and one lead time regardless of what you asked for has not been engineered. Customisation sits in three tiers, and each tier moves the commercial terms in a predictable direction. Knowing which tier you are in before you ask is the fastest way to a realistic quotation.

TIER 01

Identity

Your brand on an existing platform. Nothing electrical or mechanical changes, so nothing in the certification file changes either.

MOQ · Baseline

Lead time · Add artwork approval to standard production

Tooling · None

Re-testing · Not required — configuration unchanged

TIER 02

Configuration

The platform stays, the settings change. Most private-label programmes live here, and it is usually the right place to be.

MOQ · Moderate increase over baseline

Lead time · Longer — sampling and functional validation added

Tooling · None to minimal

Re-testing · Partial — where the change touches a tested parameter

TIER 03

Engineering

New hardware. This is ODM territory, and the commercial terms change accordingly because development and testing have to be recovered.

MOQ · Significantly higher — development is amortised

Lead time · Months — design, tooling, sampling, testing

Tooling · Required, quoted separately as a one-time cost

Re-testing · Full — the new configuration is a new product

How we quote it. Tooling is a one-time cost and we say so on the quotation. Testing is a one-time cost. Cell and component cost is per unit and moves with volume. You should be able to see which is which on any quotation you receive — from us or from anyone else. If a supplier bundles all of it into a single unit price, you cannot tell what returns when the programme scales.

Scope boundaries

What we will customise — and what we will not

A supplier who agrees to everything has either not read the request or intends to renegotiate later. The right-hand list exists because agreeing to these creates risk that lands on you, not on us.

We will customise

Voltage, capacity and cell configuration
BMS protection thresholds and balancing behaviour
CAN / RS485 / RS232 protocol and inverter matching
Continuous and peak current rating within platform limits
Terminal type, position and cable lug format
Enclosure format, colour, finish and ingress rating
Bluetooth, LCD display, app and monitoring modules
Self-heating and low-temperature charge behaviour
Logo, label, manual, carton, pallet and export packaging
Documentation package for the destination market

We will not

Print a certification mark the product does not hold
Issue documentation naming a model that was not tested
Quote a cycle life figure without its test conditions
Ship a configuration that has not passed functional validation
Substitute a cell source mid-programme without written notice
Agree a current rating the BMS build cannot sustain
Supply an indoor-rated enclosure for an outdoor installation
Commit to a lead time before cell availability is confirmed

Programme workflow

Seven stages from specification to repeat production

Each stage has an owner and an exit condition. The programme does not move forward until the exit condition is met, which is what keeps batch five identical to batch one.

Requirement review

Application, electrical targets, environment, market, certification scope and volume forecast. Output is a written requirement both sides have signed off.

Owner: You + engineering

Engineering proposal

Cell platform, BMS configuration, protocol logic, enclosure and documentation scope, with the customisation tier and its commercial impact stated.

Owner: SafeCloud engineering

Quotation and tier confirmation

One-time costs separated from per-unit costs. Tooling, testing and sampling quoted as distinct line items rather than buried in a unit price.

Owner: Commercial

Sample build and validation

Capacity, cycle behaviour, protection functions, communication, thermal behaviour and mechanical fit, tested against the agreed specification.

Owner: SafeCloud QC

Approval and specification lock

You approve the sample, label, packaging and documentation. The configuration is frozen and becomes the reference for every subsequent batch.

Owner: You

Mass production

Incoming inspection, cell sorting and matching, assembly, BMS programming, aging and outgoing quality control against the locked specification.

Owner: SafeCloud production

Shipment and ongoing support

UN38.3 and SDS documentation, dangerous goods packing, shipment records, warranty handling and change notification for the life of the programme.

Owner: Both

Validation

Customisation without validation is label printing with risk attached

A changed BMS threshold or a new protocol setting is a specification change, and a specification change has to be proven before it reaches a customer site. These are the checks a custom configuration goes through before mass production is released.

Cell sorting by measured capacity and internal resistance before assembly
Electrical performance against the agreed specification, not the platform default
Protection function test at every configured threshold
Communication test against the target inverter or PCS model
Aging cycle under the defined charge and discharge profile
Mechanical fit and enclosure check against the approved drawing
Label, firmware, accessory and carton-mark verification

Batch consistency and change control

The real private-label risk is batch five, not batch one

First production runs are usually fine — everyone is paying attention. The failure mode that damages a brand is the quiet substitution: a different cell source, a revised BMS board, a changed connector, discovered by an installer eighteen months later. These are the commitments that prevent it.

Locked at approval

Notified before it changes

Traceable per batch

Ownership and exclusivity

Who owns the tooling, the design and the certificate

Rarely addressed on a supplier page, and one of the first things a serious brand asks. The position below is our default. Anything different is agreed in the contract, in writing, before development starts — not assumed.

Item	Default position	Negotiable
Your brand, logo and artwork	Yours, entirely	Not applicable
Your packaging and manual design	Yours, entirely	Not applicable
Existing SafeCloud platform design	Ours	No
Tooling you paid for	Yours on full payment; held and maintained by us	Transfer terms, on request
Configuration developed for your programme	Defined in the contract	Yes — agree before development
Certification issued in your name	Yours	Not applicable
Certification issued in ours	Ours; usable by you as supporting evidence	Scope, on request
Market or channel exclusivity	Not granted by default	Yes — against volume commitment

If exclusivity matters to your business case, raise it in the first conversation. It is far easier to structure at the start than to retrofit once a platform is already selling in your market through another channel.

Documentation

What you receive, and for which market

Transport documentation applies to every shipment. Market access requirements depend on destination and are the item most likely to delay a launch. Tell us the markets at quotation and we will state what we hold, at which level, and what would need testing.

Destination	Typically required beyond transport documents
Every shipment	UN38.3 Test Summary, SDS, dangerous goods packaging for sea freight
European Union	CE Declaration of Conformity; EU Battery Regulation obligations; IEC 62619 / 63056 evidence commonly requested
United Kingdom	UKCA marking with separate conformity assessment
United States / Canada	UL 1973 and UL 9540 listing for permitted installations; UL 9540A data increasingly requested
Australia / New Zealand	AS/NZS 5139 installation context; CEC listing decisive for the residential channel
South Africa	NRCS Letter of Authority for regulated products

Indicative only, and this area changes on a fixed annual cycle. Confirm the current position for your product and market with your forwarder and the relevant authority. Our full breakdown is in the export documents guide.

After the first shipment

What happens when a unit fails at your customer's site

Under a private label, your customer calls you, not us. The programme has to be set up so you can answer them. That means diagnostic data, defined turnaround and a spare policy agreed before the first container, not improvised after the first failure.

Warranty term, retention threshold and throughput basis agreed in contract
Batch traceability so a failure can be tied to a production run
Diagnostic route — BMS data readout and fault code reference
RMA process with a defined target turnaround
Spare-part and replacement-unit policy
Technical support to your team, not to your end customers
Change notification for the life of the programme

Buyer questions

OEM and ODM programme questions

Where a number depends on the platform and the tier, we say so rather than publish a figure that would not survive a real quotation.

What is the minimum order quantity?

It depends on the tier. Tier 1 identity work sits at the platform baseline because nothing electrical changes. Tier 2 configuration raises it moderately. Tier 3 engineering raises it significantly because development and testing have to be amortised across the order. Send the platform, the tier and your annual forecast and we will quote MOQ, tooling and lead time together — quoting one without the others is meaningless.

How long does an OEM programme take?

Tier 1 adds artwork approval to standard production lead time. Tier 2 adds sampling and functional validation. Tier 3 runs to months because design, tooling, sampling and certification testing are sequential. The variable that moves most is cell availability, which is why we do not commit to a date before it is confirmed.

What actually drives lead time?

Mostly cell procurement and change management, not assembly. Assembly capacity is rarely the constraint. Ask any supplier how many cell sources are approved for your platform and what happens if one is constrained — the answer tells you how much their date is worth.

Do I pay for tooling, and do I own it?

Tooling applies at Tier 3 where a new enclosure is involved, and it is quoted as a separate one-time line item rather than buried in the unit price. Tooling you pay for in full is yours; we hold and maintain it. Transfer terms can be agreed on request.

Can you certify the product in my brand name?

Certification in your name is possible and the certificate is then yours. Where testing is held in ours, you can use it as supporting evidence but the certificate remains ours. Which route makes sense depends on the market and on whether you intend to move production later — worth deciding early, because it is awkward to change afterwards.

Will you grant exclusivity in my market?

Not by default, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. Exclusivity is negotiable against a volume commitment and is easiest to structure at the start of a programme. Raise it in the first conversation rather than after a platform is already selling in your market.

How do I know batch five matches batch one?

The configuration is frozen at sample approval and becomes the production reference. Cell model, cell manufacturer, BMS hardware and firmware version, enclosure drawing and terminal format are all locked. Any change to those is notified before it happens, not discovered afterwards. Each batch carries a date code and cell batch reference so a field issue can be traced to a production run.

What information do you need to quote?

Platform or application, target voltage and capacity, continuous and peak current, communication requirement and target inverter or PCS model, enclosure and ingress requirement, destination markets and certification scope, customisation scope, trial quantity and expected annual volume. The more of that arrives with the first email, the faster the first quotation is worth reading.

Tell us the tier, not just the product

Platform, customisation scope, destination markets, target volume and launch date. We will come back with the tier, the one-time costs separated from the per-unit costs, and an honest position on what has to be tested. Engineering response within one business day.