Price of EV technology to plummet

Electric vehicles are poised to overcome three big speed bumps over the next five years: cost, supply and driving range.

One of the pioneering car makers in the modern electric car era, Mitsubishi, says production of batteries will increase by more than 10-fold by 2015, and new technology will make them more efficient – meaning you'll be able to drive further between recharges.

At the launch of the retail edition of the i-MiEV this week the vice president of corporate strategy for Mitsubishi Australia, Paul Stevenson, said Mitsubishi was increasing its battery production from 10,000 units a year to 50,000 in the next 12 months – with a further, larger surge in capacity by 2015.

"Economies of scale are key to the price of the car," Stevenson said. "When you have scale the cost comes down."

He also said battery performance would improve by 600 per cent by the end of the decade.

The company showed a graph using data from the US Department of Energy which illustrated the weight of a battery pack required to make a vehicle travel 160km between recharges.

Today's typical electric-car battery pack weighs more than 300kg, but a battery pack for a family-sized car in 2015 will weigh a little over 200kg – and by 2020 will weigh just 55kg to travel 160km the data showed.

Stevenson said this will give car makers the option of reducing battery weight – or maintaining battery weight and increasing range.

For example, four 55kg batteries of the future (220kg, similar to the i-MiEV's current battery pack weight), would give the i-MiEV a driving range of 640km.

Another graph using data from the US Department of Energy showed the manufacturing cost of battery packs would fall by 70 per cent by 2015.

Today's battery packs typically cost in excess of $33,000 but that cost will halve by 2012, drop to $10,000 by 2015 -- and to $5000 by 2020.

"This will very quickly solve the cost and range anxiety issues," says Stevenson. "Eventually there will be no penalty for driving an electric car."

Stevenson also cited a recent study by respected research firm AustraliaScan which showed that 70 per cent of Australian car buyers have a "leaning towards" an environmental car.

"They want it, but don't want to pay [a premium] for it," he said. "If we can resolve those issues there is a ready market."

He said electric cars needed to make "financial sense as well as environmental sense. We only need to look at the solar panel example to see that."

Despite overseas reports that there are not enough precious metals to make the number of lithium ion batteries that the car industry is forecasting, Stevenson said Mitsubishi had good supply, with joint ventures with mining companies in Japan and West Australia.

"Australia is the second largest source [of lithium] on the planet," he said.