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We'll find out! The lesson from oil and gas is that people find ways once the price goes up and the demand is there. Lithium is very abundant. Do we know what p
by Brakenshire 10y ago
We'll find out! The lesson from oil and gas is that people find ways once the price goes up and the demand is there. Lithium is very abundant. Do we know what percentage of the cost of the battery comes from material costs?
- Gibbon1 10y agoWell 'the internet' says a Tesla Model S battery contains about 11.7 kg or 14.2 kg of lithium. Currently lithium carbonate is $6500/ton. Molar mass is ~74 which is 14/74 = 19% percent lithium. So I'd assume it costs $30/kg $35/kg X 12kg -> $420 On the other hand the Nissan Leaf contains 4kg or $140 worth. I'm pretty sure a sustainable increase demand will bring more lithium onto the market.
- Brakenshire 10y agoVery interesting, thanks for doing that calculation. Lithium should scale directly with storage capacity, so despite technological improvements in kWh per unit weight or volume, that should stay relatively constant. So there is a relatively hard limit here for price reductions.