Tyler Helps, Spiers director of business development, talks strategy, the future and how the industry leader in repairing and recycling hybrid and electric vehicle batteries has grown during the last eight years.
Spiers New Technology, headquartered in Oklahoma City, is the industry leader in repairing and recycling advanced battery packs used in hybrid and electric cars, a rapidly growing market. The company, founded by Dirk Spiers and recently purchased by Cox Automotive, recently celebrated its eight anniversary.
“The last eight years have been incredible,” said Tyler Helps, Spiers director of business development. “In the beginning and throughout, we’ve had a tremendous amount of help from the state, through OCAST and others. Really, the whole innovation pipeline has been very robust and helpful. But the growth journey has been just like any other startup.”
This startup has seen rapid growth. The company has added a new building every year, and jumped from 90 employees to 500 last year.
“It was mostly because of a specific project but it really is a good indication of the industry as a whole,” he said. “The train has really left the station for electrification. It’s like, you know, the industry moves where the R&D money goes, and all the R&D money is going towards electrification. So yeah, it’s been a fun industry to be in.”
Spiers now has five locations strategically placed throughout the United States and expanding into the United Kingdom. And in 2023, the company plans to open another facility in Europe.
Helps said the growth of Spiers directly mirrors the growth of the electric car market.
“Last year, I think around 6% of new vehicle sales were electric and the preceding year was 4%,” he said. “So that’s a 50% increase in total number of vehicles sold. So that’s going to cause us to have a lot of business.”
He said Spiers’ growth strategy is to continue to keep pace with the industry’s growth.
“So the plan is just kind of to keep up with market growth,” Helps said. “It’s hard to measure, but today we’re the market leader in this space.”
To prove it, GM named Spiers as one its Suppliers of the Year for 2022, among other industry awards.
We’re really proud of that,” he said. “It’s hard to measure the market sizes, especially since most folks aren’t public in this space, most are private companies. But those are bits of evidence that we use to say, ‘Hey, we’re on the right track.’”
