Get up-to-speed with our battery raw material prices, news, trends and forecasts. The price of lithium is falling, but some Western companies have recently announced more investments in the Lithium Triangle – a region of South America comprising parts of Argentina, Chile and Bolivia.
In 2022, the estimated average battery price stood at about USD 150 per kWh, with the cost of pack manufacturing accounting for about 20% of total battery cost, compared to more than 30% a decade earlier. Pack production costs have continued to decrease over time, down 5% in 2022 compared to the previous year.
Turmoil in battery metal markets led the cost of Li-ion battery packs to increase for the first time in 2022, with prices rising to 7% higher than in 2021. However, the price of all key battery metals dropped during 2023, with cobalt, graphite and manganese prices falling to lower than their 2015-2020 average by the end of 2023.
In 2023, the supply of cobalt and nickel exceeded demand by 6.5% and 8%, and supply of lithium by over 10%, thereby bringing down critical mineral prices and battery costs. While low critical mineral prices help bring battery costs down, they also imply lower cash flows and narrower margins for mining companies.
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Nevertheless, the United States remains the smallest market of the three, with around 100 GWh in 2023, compared to 185 GWh in Europe and 415 GWh in China. In the rest of the world, battery demand growth jumped to more than 70% in 2023 compared to 2022, as a result of increasing EV sales.