Batteries for electrical automobiles have definitely gotten cheaper over the past decade, however in response to a brand new report printed by the US Division of Power (DOE), costs have gone down significantly. The DOE estimates that in 2022 the worth of lithium-ion batteries for EVs had been round 89 p.c decrease in comparison with 2008.

That is nonetheless an estimate, although, and it solely ends in that proportion should you use fixed {dollars}, which is completed by adjusting their worth for inflation and present buying energy. The DOE introduced a graph (embedded beneath) displaying this worth decline, which reveals that the worth of 1 kWh (of usable capability) was $1,355 in 2008 and has fallen to simply $153 in 2022.

If we don’t modify the forex, then the worth of 1 kWh was about $1,000 in 2008, so the proportion by which it has fallen till as we speak is diminished, but the graph nonetheless reveals a considerable drop in worth. Nevertheless, this doesn’t paint as correct an image as utilizing actual (adjusted) {dollars}, which is why they’re nearly all the time utilized in research corresponding to this one.

Curiously, we discovered one other current report, this time printed by BloombergNEF, which mentioned that the worth per kilowatt hour had really gone up in 2022 for the primary time because it started monitoring this market in 2010. Apparently, in 2021 the price for 1 kWh was 7 p.c decrease than as we speak, at about $138, and it might have risen additional in 2022 had it not been for the widespread introduction of LFP (lithium iron phosphate) expertise.

The report says LFP cells had been round 20 p.c extra reasonably priced than NMC (lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide ) batteries via the usage of much less cobalt and extra nickel in cathodes. Even LFP batteries noticed a worth improve in 2022, rising by 27 p.c in comparison with 2021. This was defined by Evelina Stoikou, an vitality market knowledgeable and writer of the research, who mentioned that

Uncooked materials and part worth will increase have been the largest contributors to the upper cell costs noticed in 2022. Amidst these worth will increase for battery metals, massive battery producers and automakers have turned to extra aggressive methods to hedge towards volatility, together with direct investments in mining and refining tasks.

The identical report additionally mentions the truth that the most affordable lithium-ion cells on the earth are in China, the place the typical price for 1 kWh is $127, which is 24 and 33 p.c lower than in the USA and Europe respectively. That is helped by the a lot bigger manufacturing volumes for EVs and their battery packs within the Individuals’s Republic, in addition to by the truth that China has large reserves of lithium.

Statista estimates that the worldwide worth for lithium-ion batteries might drop to $101/kWh in 2023, and to round $58/kWh by 2030.