Battery energy density has tripled since 2010

 From CleanTechnica

BloombergNEF‘s Colin McKerracher took to the stage at the BloombergNEF Summit in San Francisco last week where he made a case for electric vehicles reaching the “end of the beginning.” The case for electric vehicles moving into the mainstream or out of the early adopter stage of growth has been fueled by the increase in energy density in lithium-ion batteries and the corresponding drop in cost that comes along with it.

Battery energy density is the amount of energy that can be stored in the same amount of weight. Think about it as the amount of range that can be extracted from the same 500 kilogram (1102 pound) pack. As energy density increases, more energy can be extracted from a battery pack of the same weight. “Battery energy densities keep getting better,” Colin McKerracher, Head of Advanced Transport at BloombergNEF, said. “They’ve almost tripled at the cell level since 2010.”

These improvements are staggering and have paved the way for an electrified future. As energy densities improve, longer range electric vehicles make their way to the market without the need for physically larger, heavier packs. This trend can be seen in the Tesla Model S, which came to market with a ~250 mile (402 km) range per charge. The most recent Model S with its Long Range Plus battery pack can achieve 390 miles (628 km) of range per charge. It can also be seen with the longer range the Nissan LEAF has gained continuously since 2011, going from 73 miles (117 km) of range back then to 215 miles (346 km) in 2020 (nearly a tripling, incidentally).

Improving energy density enables other meaningful wins across the board with electric vehicles. As density improves, the same 100 kWh pack gets lighter. Lighter battery packs translate to lower freight and handling expenses throughout the supply chain, further lowering the cost of the battery. McKerracher commented about battery pricing as well, noting that the price of lithium-ion batteries has continued to fall in recent years. The trend is expected to continue in 2020, with BloombergNEF estimating a price drop from $156/kWh in 2019 to $135/kWh in 2020.