Will electric cars be more expensive than gasoline cars? When Ningde BYD cuts costs again, will the same price for gasoline and electric cars become a reality?

Recently, CATL and BYD have simultaneously released news about reducing costs and increasing efficiency, pushing the price of power batteries to further drop to 0.3 yuan/Wh.

91che believes that if the two companies can really do this, the price of electric vehicles will be expected to drop further in the future, and the era of the same price for gasoline and electric vehicles may really come. The phenomenon that electric vehicles of the same level are generally more expensive than gasoline vehicles will truly become history.

Battery prices have been falling over the past two decades, and lower battery prices have been one of the main drivers of the electric vehicle revolution. Although battery prices have actually risen in the past few years amid soaring metal costs and general inflation, the overall trend of battery prices falling is very clear.

In November 2023, Goldman Sachs predicted that by 2025, battery prices will drop to $99/kWh, 40% lower than in 2022. "We estimate that half of the reduction in battery prices will come from falling prices for raw materials for electric vehicles, such as lithium, nickel and cobalt."

The power battery is the most expensive component in electric vehicles, and the cost of the battery accounts for up to 60% of the total vehicle cost. Compared with internal combustion engine vehicles, electric vehicles have far fewer parts and are much easier to produce. In theory, their prices should be lower than fuel vehicles. The main reason for the high price of electric vehicles is that the battery price is too high. Therefore, if the battery price can be "brought down", the price of the whole vehicle will most likely also fall.

In the initial rapid development period of electric vehicles, driving range was the most concerned factor for car manufacturers and consumers. Therefore, most electric vehicles use ternary lithium batteries as the power source of the vehicle. Although lithium iron phosphate batteries have problems such as low energy density, charging speed and low-temperature performance, they are cheaper and safer, so car manufacturers often choose to use such batteries in entry-level models to lower vehicle prices.

However, car companies still seem unsatisfied and hope to further reduce the price of electric vehicles so that more people will give up fuel vehicles. After entering 2024, some companies began to think about sodium-based batteries, which can completely abandon lithium and replace it with sodium.

Recently, Stellantis announced that it would invest in Tiamat, a French battery startup that focuses on the production of sodium-based batteries. The company said that its batteries are cheaper, but have a shorter range, making them very suitable for low-cost small electric vehicles.

It can be seen that from some perspectives, the development of electric vehicles and the development of power batteries complement each other. The decline in battery prices is undoubtedly good news for new energy vehicle companies. The reduction in battery prices will inevitably reduce the cost of electric vehicles, and car companies will have more room for price adjustment. This has almost become an industry consensus.

When battery prices drop to a certain level, the era of the same price for gasoline cars and electric cars will truly come. At that time, new energy vehicles will no longer need to rely on policy support and subsidies, and will be able to compete fairly with gasoline cars in the market.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.