The ultimate battery pack for electric cars?

John McElroy recently gathered three experts for for "Autoline This Week 1833" discussion on battery technology - Ann Marie Sastry from Sakti3, LG Chem’s Prabhakar Patil and Brett Smith from the Center for Automotive Research.

Among the topics were battery outlook, costs and, of course, the Tesla Gigafactory.

According to the experts, lithium-ion batteries are here to stay at least another 10 years and prices will fall down. LG Chem stated that by 2017, 200-mile range EVs should be realistic at a price point of $35,000. Sakti3 on the other hand hopes for $100 per kWh on the cell level and expects sales for consumer electronics in two years (later for electric cars).

Prabhakar said that the cost of cells are about 60-70% of the battery pack in electric cars and 50% in hybrids.