Bloomberg NEF announced today that a cost below $100 per kWh has been reported for the first time ever.
Bloomberg NEF has been tracking battery costs for quite some time and broke the news reporting that the batteries involved were for electric buses in China: “For the first time, battery pack prices of less than $100/kWh have been reported. These were for batteries in e-buses in China. While these were the lowest reported price, the volume-weighted average price for e-buses in China was slightly higher, $105/kWh.”
BNEF’s head of energy storage research and lead author of the report, James Frith commented on the exciting news: “It is a historic milestone to see pack prices of less than $100/kWh reported. Within just a few years we will see the average price in the industry pass this point. What’s more, our analysis shows that even if prices for raw materials were to return to the highs seen in 2018, it would only delay average prices reaching $100/kWh by two years – rather than completely derailing the industry. The industry is becoming increasingly resilient to changing raw material prices, with leading battery manufacturers moving up the value chain and investing in cathode production or even mines.”
Although it was for electric buses and not passenger electric cars, BNEF estimates the average battery cost is going to reach $100/kWh by 2023: “Lithium-ion battery pack prices, which were above $1,100 per kilowatt-hour in 2010, have fallen 89% in real terms to $137/kWh in 2020. By 2023, average prices will be close to $100/kWh, according to the latest forecast from research company BloombergNEF (BNEF).”