Stephen Chu predicts 70% drop in EV battery costs between 2008 and 2015 [View all]

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"U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu estimates that plug-in vehicle battery costs will have dropped 70 percent between 2008 and 2015 and will fall another 58 percent between 2015 and 2020, giving hope to electric-drive vehicle advocates that the price premium for plug-ins relative to conventional vehicles will narrow during the next few years. Chu also said that the U.S. Energy Department is opening a research center dedicated to improve battery and energy-storage technologies for the transportation industry.

Chu, in a speech at the Detroit Economic Club during the Detroit Auto Show (he's pictured above, right, speaking with Nissan's Mark Perry while checking out the Leaf), said that a plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle battery that can provide 40 miles of all-electric range will cost $3,600 in 2015, down from $12,000 in 2008. That battery's cost will fall to just $1,500 by the end of the decade, Chu added. "The advanced battery competition is a race the United States can and should win," Chu said.

Greater adoption of electric-drive technologies will likely be necessary for the U.S. to meet proposed CAFE standards for light-duty vehicles of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, which is equivalent to about 40 miles per gallon measured by EPA standards. That would still be almost an 80 percent jump from 2010 model-year fleetwide fuel economy in the U.S."

http://green.autoblog.com/2012/01/12/energy-secretary-chu-estimates-70-drop-in-ev-battery-costs-betw/