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.
Lithium-ion batteries are the most commonly used. Lithium-ion battery cells have also seen an impressive price reduction. Since 1991, prices have fallen by around 97%. Prices fall by an average of 19% for every doubling of capacity. Even more promising is that this rate of reduction does not yet appear to be slowing down.
Most lithium-ion batteries are not sold directly to consumers — you can’t run down to your typical corner drugstore to pick up a replacement battery for your iPhone, your PC, or your electric car. Instead, manufacturers buy lithium-ion batteries and build them into electronics and cars.
A broad drop in battery metal prices decreased the overall cost of the average battery pack by about 30% year over year in 2023, Commodity Insights analysts said in a January report. Decreased lithium prices have had much more of an impact on LFP batteries.
At our 2018 price, the battery costs around $7,300. Imagine trying to buy the same model in 1991: the battery alone would cost $300,000. Or take the Tesla Model S 75D, which has a 75 kWh battery. In 2018 the battery costs around $13,600; in 1991, it would have been $564,000. More than half a million dollars for a car battery.
Source: Witthaya Prasongsin/Moment via Getty Images. A steep decline in lithium prices may help lithium-rich battery chemistries beat out nickel-rich chemistries in the battle for electric vehicle dominance, analysts told S&P Global Commodity Insights.