Skip to footer

How much have electric-car battery costs fallen? This much!

According to one study, average electric-car battery costs declined every year between 2010 and 2015.

|
James Glover/Reuters
Workers during construction of the Tesla Gigafactory near Sparks, Nevada, on July 26, 2016. The factory began production of lithium-ion cells on January 6, 2017.

High costs of lithium-ion battery cells have been one of the main hindrances to large-scale electric-car adoption, as they typically lead to higher purchase prices for electric cars than comparable internal-combustion models.

But electric-car battery prices are falling fast, according to one recent study.

Global Trends in Renewable Energy, calls the price drop in batteries for electric cars "spectacular."

Citing improved chemistry, manufacturing processes and economies of scale, authors of the study (pdf) at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management see a bright future ahead for electric cars.

According to the study, average electric-car battery costs declined every year between 2010 and 2015.

Between 2014 and 2015, average costs decreased by 35 percent.

In addition to cost reductions achieved through changes to cell chemistry and manufacturing processes, the study also notes cost decreases due to "aggressive pricing" by large battery manufacturers looking to defend their market share.

Tesla's opening of a massive "Gigafactory" in Nevada to provide greater economies of scale is also cited as a contributor.

The company began producing lithium-ion cells at the Gigafactory this month, using them for its Powerwall 2 and Powerpack 2 energy-storage battery packs.

Tesla hopes to begin cell production for the Model 3 electric car in the second quarter of this year, and expects to be making 35 gigawatt hours of cells per year at the Gigafactory by 2018.

Global electric-car sales reached 462,000 units in 2015, up from 290,000 in 2014, according to the study.

While sales have steadily grown since modern electric cars first went on sale in large numbers about six years ago, predictions about future growth differ widely.

On the less-optimistic side, OPEC expects 1.7 million electric cars to be on world roads by 2020.

But Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates that 7.4 million electric cars will be on the road by that time, with 2 million sold in 2020 alone.

Bloomberg also expects electric cars to make up 35 percent of light-duty vehicle sales by 2040.

It's unclear which prediction will prove closer to reality, but lower battery costs can only help the cause of electric-car adoption.

This story originally appeared on Green Car Reports.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to How much have electric-car battery costs fallen? This much!
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2017/0108/How-much-have-electric-car-battery-costs-fallen-This-much
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe