TESLA Leads Electric Vehicle Battery Cost Drop

TESLA Motors is reported to have not only a rapid decline of cost, but also significant improvements in the last few years. According to International Energy Agency report, the company has recorded an estimate battery cost cut by a factor four while the battery energy had increased by five.  It appears that the economies of scale and technology learning contribute greatly to the continues reduction of rising technology costs in the coming years.

Citing TESLA Motors leading the electric vehicle battery cost declines, the report indicates that a number of original equipment manufacturers have declared an even more ambitious cost estimate for BEVs. Recently, General Motors said that battery costs for their 2016 Chevrolet Bolt had dropped to US $ 145 per KWH by October 2015, and that they plan to reduce costs below the US $ 100 per kWh goal by 2022, Bloomberg reported.

TESLA, on the other hand, aims to break the US $ 100 per kWh goal by 2020. These improvements in energy density and battery cost have resulted in  car makers announcing EV ranges that have never been heard of so far.  For instance, TESLA launched orders in March for their new Model 3 that offers an electric drive range of almost 350 km on a single charge by the year 2017, when the initial vehicles are set for delivery to customers. Just recently, TESLA's CTO JB Straubel mentioned some further battery cost reductions as well as technology innovation at Tesla's Gigafactory. As explained by Straubel,  better batteries are possible since he sees innovation in material science as well as chemistry innovation. He also said that performance improvements are expected aside from cost reductions.

With TESLA Motors' recent employ of a leading battery researcher, analysts believe that this may also speed up improvements in its technology in terms of electric vehicle battery. It is evident that the International Energy Agency acknowledges the company as the leader in this field. Based on the 400,000 pre-orders for the Model 3, it is clear that the car-buying public also thinks that TESLA is the forefront of the new electric vehicle movement, according to Irish Times.