With the price of gasoline hovering below $2 a gallon, it might seem that Tesla CEO Elon Musk will struggle to reach the masses. But there are signs the mainstream buyer could soon become more open to plugging in, even if oil prices remain depressed. The forecasters are certainly bullish. A recent report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance said the falling cost of lithium-ion batteries will push the market share for electric vehicles to 35 percent by 2040 (see “The 2020s Could Be the Decade When Electric Cars Take Over”). Navigant Research projects that in California, where EV sales are concentrated, the growth would be from about 3 percent of overall sales today to between 15 and 22 percent by 2024.
Here’s Why You Might Be an Electric Car Owner a Decade from Now
Can Tesla really deliver on its promise to offer a long-range electric vehicle that is cheap enough to attract mainstream buyers by 2017? We can’t know for sure without access to the company’s proprietary information. But one thing is clear: if Tesla is successful it will be because of significant advances to the design and manufacturing of its battery pack, which many estimates suggest represents a quarter to half of the full cost of the car.
The Tesla Model 3 May Depend on This Battery Breakthrough
Levine cites a battery market investment analyst who says that the Model 3’s anodes could contain up to 10 percent silicon, which battery experts say would be a “serious breakthrough.” Serious enough, in fact, that it might allow Tesla to bring the cost of its batteries down from an estimated $300 per kilowatt-hour in 2014 to $200 by 2017. That would get us much closer to $150, the point at which some experts have predicted there could be a “paradigm shift” away from internal combustion cars.
The Tesla Model 3 May Depend on This Battery Breakthrough
A technology currently under development by startup company Hydrogenious could have the potential to fundamentally change the conditions for fuel cell deployment in transport applications: It will enable hydrogen storage in standard car tanks. With it, electric vehicles thus could achieve competitive driving ranges without costly batteries.
New hydrogen technology revives fuel cells - Electronics Eetimes
A group of eight Korean industry heavyweights, including carmaker Hyundai, technology conglomerate Samsung and LG Electronics have aired plans to massively invest into the development of electric vehicles, batteries and related information technology.
Korea starts „big leap“ towards electromobility - Electronics Eetimes