Last year, a paper was published by Bjorn Nykvist and Mans Nilsson analysing experts’ predictions on battery prices and “best guess” manufacturer pricing. We at JET Charge thought it gave a really great insight into where companies are right now in terms of their battery costs, and where they might fall in the future. Link over here.
Above all, it reinforced our belief that EVs will one day become cheaper to produce than petrol cars, which would drastically raise the market penetration of EVs, even without any government intervention.
Well, in light of GM’s latest Bolt project in the US, we thought it was time to revisit this graph, but with one new KEY price point.
That’s right, GM is buying batteries from LG at the price of $145/kWh, which means that in 2016, we have already dropped below the price for batteries that many expect will lead to the mass commercialisation of EVs. This wasn’t due to happen until AT LEAST 2025 or 2030!
Additionally, GM said last year that they were expecting battery prices to hit $100/kWh by 2022. At these prices, EVs are set to dominate.
You can read about it here: http://insideevs.com/gm-chevrolet-bolt-for-2016-145kwh-cell-cost-volt-margin-improves-3500/
The research paper says:
“If costs reach as low as $150 per kilowatt-hour this means that electric vehicles will probably move beyond niche applications and begin to penetrate the market more widely, leading to a potential paradigm shift in vehicle technology.”
We are definitely excited by this “paradigm shift”, and have already experienced it first hand. We hope you’re excited by it too!