Breakthrough Cost

Part of Elon Musk’s grand plan of making the world a greener place and addressing the damage caused by climate change is ensuring that people have access to renewable technology. This means both introducing the technology and bringing the cost down so that people can actually have viable alternatives to traditional, carbon-emitting sources.

Tesla’s Gigafactory was a big part of this plan. Once the factory became operational, Tesla was gunning to reduce their battery cost by 30 percent. Now, a recent announcement from the company hints that it might be possible to bring it down even more. In a promotional video displayed in some stores, it seems that the factory was able to achieve a “35 percent reduction in battery cost.”

No numbers have been officially released, but given the small bits of information that have gradually come out to the public, it seems that Tesla is definitely getting closer to that $35,000 price tag that the company is targeting for its Model 3.

Affordable Technology

Since 2001, battery cost for electric vehicles (EVs) has been reduced by 80 percent. Even so, the current cost of today’s long-range EVs is still not very affordable for most people. To be able to bring down the overall cost, the price of battery cells and packs must significantly be lowered.

Early in 2016, Tesla said that price point was already below $190/kWh, prior to the Gigafactory starting production. With the factory now up and running, and the Tesla/Panasonic partnership already starting production for the 2170 battery cell, they could be able pull down the cost to $125/kWh.

The goal would be to reach $100/kWh. At this rate, EVs will be on par with gas-powered vehicles — and chances are, people will be more likely to adopt the renewable technology if they can do so without having to spend more money.