Lithium-ion Battery Manufacturing Costs Falling Faster Than Expected

In the latest note from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, Simon Moores discussed falling manufacturing costs for lithium-ion batteries. Costs are five years ahead of schedule relative to International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts from 2011, with costs falling at an average of 14 percent per year since 2000.

As quoted in the note:

In 2005 batteries cost over $1,000/kWh to produce, whereas today this has fallen to between $300-400/kWh. These cost reductions have come as a result of manufacturing improvements and not from the raw materials of graphite, lithium and cobalt.

Costs however are still too high for mass commercialisation of EVs but many believe with the rise of the battery megafactories and a new era of mass production beckoning for the industry, it will only be 2-3 years before the holy grail of $150/kWh is reached.

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