Battery prices have been declining for years, but that may be about to change. One firm projects a sharp increase in demand for battery minerals over the next four years that could push the price of EV battery cells up by more than 20%. That’s on top of already-rising prices for battery-related raw materials, a result of supply-chain disruptions related to Covid and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The higher costs have some electric vehicle makers boosting their prices, making the already-expensive vehicles even less affordable for average Americans and begging the question, will surging commodity prices slow the electric-vehicle revolution?
Legacy advantage: The established global automakers have greater economies of scale than companies such as Lucid or Rivian and haven’t been hit quite as hard by rising battery-related costs. They, too, are feeling some pricing pressure, though they’re passing on the costs to buyers to a lesser degree.
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