Study Finds EV Battery’s Price Drops 70% by 2025
Tim Esterdahl | Jul 23, 2012 | Comments 4
Good news for automakers and consumers hoping that Electric Vehicles can be a solution to our future energy needs. A study by consulting firm McKinsey says a cheaper price is on the horizon.
While this is an uncommon sight now, it could be very normal in 10-15 years.
A popular analogy is to consider the hefty laptops from just 10-15 years ago with short battery life. Now laptops are considerably lighter and have longer battery times.
Reuters summed up the findings:
McKinsey predicts the price of a complete lithium-ion battery pack could fall from between $500 and $600 per kilowatt hour now to about $200 in 2020 and to $160 by 2025. If gasoline prices hover around $3.50 per gallon or higher, automakers that purchase batteries at $250 per kilowatt hour could offer electrified vehicles that can compete with cars and trucks powered by advanced internal-combustion engines, which are now significantly cheaper.
Industry Analyst Bob Rose commented on the report on Cleancaroptions.com with “the McKinsey and Company report “confirms the value of fuel cell EVs in our national energy portfolio”, and lists these key points from that report:
- FCEVs are the best EV option for longer trips and medium size and larger cars, where they are cost-competitive with internal combustion engines.
- FCEVs have inherent advantages, including better performance and range. FCEV refuelling time is measured in minutes compared to hours for battery EVs.
- Refuelling infrastructure is affordable and in line with other EV options. (“A dedicated hydrogen infrastructure is therefore justified and doable.”)
- Long lead times make it “a matter of urgency” that governments adopt programs to support vehicle sales and infrastructure in the early years.
- While the analysis focuses on Europe, the technology and cost assessment is applicable worldwide –and the policy conclusions are relevant to the United States (the U.S. has an even greater percentage of medium and heavy duty vehicles and we drive our cars longer distances)
While this is good news for anyone hoping to reduce the cost of gasoline in their vehicles, many obstacles (such as power, towing, etc.) still deter many truck owners from seeing electric as a suitable power source.
What do you think? Could you ever see an electric-powered full-size truck sitting in your garage?
Related Posts:
Filed Under: Auto News
I have often wondered what effect the plug in electric car will have on ones power bill. Electricity isn’t cheap either, and any time energy is converted from one form to another, a percentage of it is lost in the process. Would your power bill end up increasing more than the cost of the fuel needed to drive the same distance? The cars themselves are more environmentally freindly, but how clean is the process of creating the energy needed to generate the electricty? Environmental groups oppose the building of new hydroelectric dams, as well as nuclear power which is pretty clean unless something goes wrong. Coal has to be mined out of the earth, and is a fairly dirty form of energy. Sometimes I think it might be best to stick with good ‘ol gas and deisel engines, and work on technology to make them more efficient and cleaner. Just my 0.02.
Matt – Generally, the cost of gasoline is 2-3 times higher than the cost of electricity for the same mileage driven. The Chevy Volt, for example, gets about 37mpg in gasoline mode, which breaks out to about $2.50 per 25 miles driven. The cost of electricity to drive the same distance is only $1.08 (see http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg.....8;id=31618 ). Now this is for the Volt – on a truck, which isn’t nearly as fuel efficient, I’d guess the factor could be as high as 5 or 6 times cheaper.
Of course “cheaper” is a relative term considering that you have to pay an extra $10k-$15k to get an electric pickup!! 😉
Finally, I think you make a great point: perfecting the internal combustion engine is a huge opportunity. HCCI, wave-disc combustion motors, and the EcoMotors opposed piston opposed cylinder designs are all promising and all promise significant gains in efficiency.
What’s more, if we’re concerned about the environment, how about this? We build hyper-efficient engines that can run on biofuels. While biofuels are twice as expensive as oil, the engines could be twice as efficient, and BOOM – same costs but better for the world. Seems like a good way to go…
A popular analogy is to consider the hefty laptops from just 10-15 years ago with short battery life. Now laptops are considerably lighter and have longer battery times.
BUT … that’s mostly because the power consumption went down.
Could you ever see an electric-powered full-size truck sitting in your garage?
NO! Not until the range increases significantly.
Sometimes I think it might be best to stick with good ‘ol gas and deisel engines, and work on technology to make them more efficient and cleaner.
Absolutely, but that won’t happen if they keep loading them up with half thought out overly complex emissions controls.
Mendonsy,
Your point on power consumption is well taken. However, I do think the analogy still holds that the more efficient and lighter batteries become, the better Electric Vehicles will be. I do see a time when trucks run on electricity since all the automotive signs point to this conclusion. Now, agreeably, that future could be 100 years from now. Yet, that is the future we are heading toward.
-Tim