Kiyoshi Ota, Getty Images
Industryweek 26335 120517 Nissan Leaf Ev Kiyoshiota2
Industryweek 26335 120517 Nissan Leaf Ev Kiyoshiota2
Industryweek 26335 120517 Nissan Leaf Ev Kiyoshiota2
Industryweek 26335 120517 Nissan Leaf Ev Kiyoshiota2
Industryweek 26335 120517 Nissan Leaf Ev Kiyoshiota2

Electric Car Batteries Drop Closer to a Cost Tipping Point

Dec. 5, 2017
Lithium-ion battery packs are selling at an average price of $209 per kilowatt-hour, down 24% from a year ago and about a fifth of the cost in 2010.

The kind of battery that powers electric vehicles is now the cheapest it’s ever been thanks to a global ramp-up in production.

Lithium-ion battery packs are selling at an average price of $209 a kilowatt-hour, down 24% from a year ago and about a fifth of what it was in 2010, a Bloomberg New Energy Finance survey shows. The rate has further to fall — reaching below $100 a kilowatt-hour by 2025, according to a report by BNEF analyst James Frith.

That’s a magic number for the electric car business. According to Frith, $100 is widely seen as “a tipping point in the adoption of EVs.”

The price estimates are based on a BNEF survey of more than 50 companies, and their decline reflects a rise in battery manufacturing and “the economies of scale that come with it,” the report shows. Developers of stationary storage systems — like the kind that back up rooftop solar panels — can expect to pay 51% more than automakers because of much lower order volumes.

By Mark Chediak

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