Besides electric motors, batteries are the most central component of an electric vehicle, with the two components accounting for roughly 50% of its total manufacturing cost (35% of which can be related to the battery) [1].
Battery Technology
A battery is manufactured using four components: An anode, a cathode, an electrolyte and a semipermeable barrier [3]. Most modern electronics as well as EVs nowadays use Lithium-Ion batteries [4]. Compared to preceding battery technologies, these batteries are relatively power-dense, do not deteriorate significantly over time and can return nearly 100% of their saved power each cycle [5][6]. However, in order to enable more demanding use cases (e.g. battery powered long-distance travel), scientists are developing more capable battery solutions. Alterations to the current lithium-ion battery technology could enable a theoretical 1000% increase in energy density, meaning that a battery of equal size could store ten times as much power compared to the current technology. These newer lithium-ion batteries deteriorate considerably faster than current ones, however. Solving this problem puts practical increases in energy density at around 200% [7].
Other technical developments could enable batteries to become much lighter, by using oxygen from the surrounding air as an anode [8].
Although newer and better battery technologies are in development, scientists expect lithium-ion batteries to remain the dominating technology for the foreseeable future [9]. One major argument for this is price: The cost of producing a lithium-ion battery has fallen by 97% since their introduction in the 1990s [2]. As a result, manufacturers of electric vehicles can expect to reach price parity with gasoline powered cars by the mid 2020s [9].
[1] Carlier, M. (2021, July 21). Typical manufacturing costs of a battery electric vehicle as of 2018. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/940722/bev-manufacturing-cost-by-type
[2] Ritchie, H. (2021, June 4). The price of batteries has declined by 97% in the last three decades. Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/battery-price-decline
[3] Bhatt, A., Forsyth, M., Withers, R., & Wang, G. (n.d.). How a battery works. Science.org. https://www.science.org.au/curious/technology-future/batteries
[4] Bhatt, A., Withers, R., & Wang, G. (n.d.). Lithium-ion batteries. Science.org. https://www.science.org.au/curious/technology-future/lithium-ion-batteries
[5] DRIVE Volkswagen Group. (2021). The charging efficiency (coulombic efficiency) of lithium-ion batteries is hypothetically almost 100%. What does that mean?https://drive-volkswagen-group.com/en/news/question/the-charging-efficiency-coulombic-efficiency-of-lithium-ion-batteries-is-hypothetically-almost-100-what-does-that-mean/
[6] University of Washington. (2020). What is a lithium-ion battery and how does it work?Clean Energy Institute. https://www.cei.washington.edu/education/science-of-solar/battery-technology/
[7] Bhatt, A., Withers, R., & Wang, G. (n.d.). Batteries of the future. Science.org. https://www.science.org.au/curious/technology-future/lithium-ion-batteries
[8] Hoster, H. (2015, November 2). Lithium-air: A battery breakthrough explained. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/lithium-air-a-battery-breakthrough-explained-50027
[9] Castelvecchi, D. (2021, August 17). Electric cars and batteries: How will the world produce enough? Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02222-1
