There was a time not so long ago where one couldn’t be faulted for not believing in the future of the electric car, but today just about every car maker has a plug-in electric vehicle or fully-electric offering on their product range. And if that’s not enough to convince one of the viability of the electric car movement, maybe the latest findings by Nature Climate Change will. According to the study, batteries for electric vehicles are cheaper today than experts predicted they would be in 2020.
It was the International Energy Agency in 2014 who estimated that it would take till the year 2020 for prices of lithium batteries to fall below the US$300/kWh mark. However, findings by both Nissan and Tesla indicate that this figure had already been reached in 2014 due to the cost falling steadily by 8% per year.
Though most would attribute a push by environmentally-conscious buyers that increased the demand and thus supply of such batteries, an equally important factor to consider would be the portable device market. As smartphones and laptops get thinner and lighter, manufacturers of such products are pressured into finding better methods of extracting more power per cubic centimetre of battery.
The study indicates that once the price reaches US$150/kWh, electric vehicles could become as cheap to purchase as their petrol-powered equivalents. With Tesla’s demonstration of the true capabilities of electric drivetrains, we’d say this is great news for both the environment and performance enthusiasts.
