Battery prices going down will be the precondition for electric vehicle sales to expand, according to a CEO of an analyst firm.
SNE Research CEO Kim Kwangju, speaking at the firm’s event called KABC 2021 in Seoul, South Korea, stressed that automobile brands such as Volkswagen, Stellantis and Tesla has also set goals to reduce battery prices by up to 50%.
This will require a reduction of costs in raw material, operation, pack and systems, and stable procurement of batteries, Kim said.
However, battery companies are starting to see profits from the expansion of the electric vehicle market, the CEO said.
Despite issues such as the recent fires, these problems are being resolved smoothly and the market continues to grow, he said.
Issues such as battery recycling, next-generation battery and larger cylinder batteries will become the new issues going forward.
Battery prices is expected to continue to drop, Kim said. Prices were US$188 per KWh in 2018 but this dropped to US$143 in 2021, he said. Prices will go down to US$93 by 2030, the CEO said.
Meanwhile, LG Chem vice president Choi Young-min, who was a speaker at the event also stressed the importance of battery price to the electric vehicle market.
Reducing raw material cost will only result in battery prices dropping by only 3%, which means new technology and battery recycling is needed for prices to drop meaningfully, he said.
New battery technology, reuse and recycling combined can reduce cost by up to 23%, Choi claimed.
