A recent report from Goldman Sachs projects a nearly 50% drop in EV battery costs by 2026, with prices expected to fall from $149 per kWh in 2023 to just $80 per kWh.
Are rechargeable batteries causing a decline in prices?
Now, MIT researchers have carried out an exhaustive analysis of the studies that have looked at the decline in the prices these batteries, which are the dominant rechargeable technology in today's world.
Given this, BNEF expects average battery pack prices to drop again next year, reaching $133/kWh (in real 2023 dollars). Technological innovation and manufacturing improvement should drive further declines in battery pack prices in the coming years, to $113/kWh in 2025 and $80/kWh in 2030.
Are EV battery prices falling?
And a big part of this shift comes down to one thing: EV battery prices are plummeting. A recent report from Goldman Sachs projects a nearly 50% drop in EV battery costs by 2026, with prices expected to fall from $149 per kWh in 2023 to just $80 per kWh. By 2030, that number could drop to $60 per kWh.
BloombergNEF's annual battery price survey finds a 14% drop from 2022 to 2023 New York, November 27, 2023 – Following unprecedented price increases in 2022, battery prices are falling again this year. The price of lithium-ion battery packs has dropped 14% to a record low of $139/kWh, according to analysis by research provider BloombergNEF (BNEF).
Evelina Stoikou, energy storage senior associate at BNEF and lead author of the report, said: “It is another year where battery prices closely followed raw material prices. In the many years that we've been doing this survey, falling prices have been driven by scale learnings and technological innovation, but that dynamic has changed.
The price of lithium-ion battery cells declined by 97% in the last three decades. A battery with a capacity of one kilowatt-hour that cost $7500 in 1991 was just $181 in 2018. That's 41 times less. What's promising is that prices are still falling steeply: the cost halved between 2014 and 2018. A halving in only four years.