Price of electric car batteries plunges 89% in 10 years

Battery packs for electric cars checked off a milestone this year, just an ever-so-slight ray of sunshine on what's been a pretty gloomy 2020. For the first time, prices slid under $100 per kilowatt-hour, and thorough analysis shows prices fell a whopping 89% in just ten years, Report says, citing Bloomberg.

The insights come from Bloomberg New Energy Finance's annual battery price survey. Both nuggets of information are excellent news for those with electric cars in the pipeline. The core, primary takeaway from both the year- and the decade-long trend is this: as battery pack prices fall, EVs become less expensive. Moreover, automakers can begin selling cars for a profit.

Let's look at the year-long trend first. According to Bloomberg NEF's data, prices fell 13% from 2019 levels. The average price sits at $137 per kWh for passenger EVs, commercial vehicles, and buses. However, the specific instance of costs falling under $100 per kWh came from batteries fitted to China's electric buses. Even though it was a small sliver of the analysis, it points to a positive trend for automakers and other companies.

Looking at just passenger EVs, the volume-weighted average sits at $126 per kWh, even better than the total average. According to the data, focusing the microscope further revealed the packs cost $100 per kWh at the cell level. The battery pack makes up 21% of an electric car's price tag in real dollars and cents. To be even more specific, let's look at an example.