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Comment by microcolonel | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how slate got the idea that they're not "expensive". Maybe the prices have been manipulated independently of supply.

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Battery costs are five years ahead of the predicted price curve:

http://cleantechnica.com/2015/03/26/ev-battery-costs-already...

GM says li-ion pack costs for its Bolt are ~$145/kWh, predicting $100/kWh by 2021: http://www.hybridcars.com/gm-ev-battery-cells-down-to-145kwh...

Tesla confirms its costs are below $190/kWh: https://forums.teslamotors.com/forum/forums/battery-cost-bel...

Batteries are following the same price curve of solar panels, and are about to get stupid cheap.

EDIT: If Tesla is able to drive down battery costs to below $100/kWh, I assure you, EVs won't be the biggest success story; you'll be able to turn every wind and solar generator into dispatchable generation cheaper than coal, nuclear, and natural gas. We'll be off fossil fuels in ~10-15 years.

Nitpick: the unit you mean is kWh, not kW, which is a different, though related, unit of merit for batteries. (kWh measures capacity; kW measures output.)

Thanks for the correction! Comment updated!

I think there's a bit of confusion about Pack prices vs Cell prices. The $145 is cell only, which is one of the reasons it is so much lower. There don't seem to be consistent pack-pack price comparisons.

I agree there is a disparity between the Bolt's cell-only cost vs Tesla's cost all-in on a pack. Regardless, the cost is below $200/kWh, and it appears that the cost decreases will continue.

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