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Well, perhaps GP was arguing that battery prices were functions of an economy of scale. No such property applies to petroleum, since growth in petroleum means g
by allovernow 7y ago
Well, perhaps GP was arguing that battery prices were functions of an economy of scale. No such property applies to petroleum, since growth in petroleum means going after more difficult reserves, which means higher prices.
- lottin 7y agoIt wouldn't make sense though, because economies of scale are enterprise-wide not industry-wide.
- allovernow 7y agoI don't know that I'd agree with that. Look at the computer industry, for a example, and how many small, medium, and large agents all benefit from what amounts to a distributed economy of scale. Apple, Microsoft, Dell and the like all produce better products with less investment when their suppliers can spend fewer dollars per widget throughout the supply chain.
- marcosdumay 7y agoThey happen on both spheres. But yes, I would really like to know the rationale behind the GP's opinion.
- jeromegv 7y agoYou still have to get lithium?
- ben_w 7y agoI’m not a chemist — would it be harder to get it from recycling old batteries than getting it from rocks? Because even the battery market is saturated, recycling is the only source you’ll need.
- salty_biscuits 7y agoThere is a lot of lithium about, just not a lot of stuff that is easy to get at. The cost of lithium isn't a huge part of battery cost at the moment anyway (10s of dollars per kilo with about 50kg in an ev battery).
- ben_w 7y agoAbout 1kg/kWh?
- the8472 7y agomore succinctly: petroleum is a consumable needed for operation, lithium is a manufacturing input
- marcosdumay 7y agoLithium is reasonably cheap already, and is in that stage where a marginal increase on scale brings the price lower, instead of higher.