Battery Cost Plunge Seen Changing Automakers Most in 100 Years
- Cheaper electric cars will enable car-technology innovations
- Self-driving autos, ride-hailing services forecast to boom
An electrical charging cable sits connected to a demonstration model of a new battery-powered Zoe city car.
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Plunging battery costs will drive the auto industry’s biggest change in more than a century, enabling a boom by 2030 in technologies from self-driving electric cars to ride-sharing applications.
The price of lithium-ion battery packs for electric cars has fallen 65 percent since 2010 and is likely to keep declining, according to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance and McKinsey & Co. Consumers may appreciate the biggest impact in the form of cheaper costs for taxis, including substantial reductions for ones run by machines.