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Shipping high-value items can be an astonishingly small part of the total cost; especially if you're sending it by sea. A few years ago I calculated that an (at

Shipping high-value items can be an astonishingly small part of the total cost; especially if you're sending it by sea. A few years ago I calculated that an (at the time) maximum sized container vessel carrying a full load of electronics in containers (which is very unlikely, but I picked a high value density item just to get an idea of the general numbers) would be carrying a cargo worth on the order of a billion dollars, and the cost of shipping each electronic good (I picked something around the size of a small PC tower; about 0.05 cubic metres) across an ocean, port to port, was on the order of a dollar. That kind of money. So I guess if I scale that up to an EV battery, volume about a third of a cubic metre, so about seven or eight times the volume, that's still less than ten dollars per EV battery shipped across an ocean, if you've got a ship full of them. I don't know what the total parts and labour cost of an EV battery is, but by this admittedly fast, brutal and half-remembered back of envelope calculation the numbers only have to be a few tens of dollars different to make it worth building them on the other side of the planet and shipping them across an ocean.

CydeWeys 3y ago
People significantly overestimate how expensive shipping by sea costs. Much less valuable goods than batteries get shipped across the entire Pacific Ocean. Think of all those cheap junk toys from China, for example. If those can be shipped profitably, then batteries for $30k+ cars absolutely can be!
- imtringued 3y ago
  Cheap junk toys don't take much space. Try something actually bulky like lumber.
  - EliRivers 3y ago
    Sure, but lumber is cheap. Hundred of dollars per cubic metre; literally 1% or less the value of the same volume of quality electronics or high-processed goods. That is the point here; high value density goods are so cheap to ship that making your EV battery plant near your car assembly plant is a false economy if you can save just a few tens of dollars on parts and labour on the other side of the planet.

CydeWeys 3y ago

People significantly overestimate how expensive shipping by sea costs. Much less valuable goods than batteries get shipped across the entire Pacific Ocean. Think of all those cheap junk toys from China, for example. If those can be shipped profitably, then batteries for $30k+ cars absolutely can be!

imtringued 3y ago
Cheap junk toys don't take much space. Try something actually bulky like lumber.
- EliRivers 3y ago
  Sure, but lumber is cheap. Hundred of dollars per cubic metre; literally 1% or less the value of the same volume of quality electronics or high-processed goods. That is the point here; high value density goods are so cheap to ship that making your EV battery plant near your car assembly plant is a false economy if you can save just a few tens of dollars on parts and labour on the other side of the planet.