rices for battery packs — used for electric vehicles and energy storage systems — are down 87% over the last decade, according to a new report from BloombergNEF, and still falling. The battery packs will soon reach a price competitive with traditional internal combustion engine cars.

Battery storage is measured in kilowatt-hours. A large battery for an electric vehicle is around 100kWh. In 2010, the average cost for that would have been $110,000. Now it’s just over $15,000.

“The decline in battery prices keeps astounding even all the experts,” said Costa Samaras, who researches energy and climate change at Carnegie Mellon University. “Nobody thought it would drop this far this fast.”

It’s dropped due to improvements in manufacturing, battery chemistry and tighter supply chain control. The biggest beneficiaries, Samaras said, are electric vehicles.

“It’s really, really important for cars to be electrified to deal with climate change, and the cheap battery is at the center of that,” Samaras said.
More>>