Electric vehicles will always be more expensive than equivalent internal combustion-engined cars, according to American Honda VP of business and sales Dave Gardner. This is due to the lithium-ion batteries that are most commonly used in EVs on the market today, Gardner told The Drive.
“We [Honda] don’t really believe that the current lithium-ion technology is the long-term solution,” Gardner said, instead pointing to solid-state battery technology that is still in development to be “the game changer” for the carmaker. Separately, Mercedes-Benz also said in April this year that EVs are still significantly more expensive than ICE vehicles to make.
Although solid-state batteries still have some way to go before mass production roll-out and therefore are “not around the corner,” Honda is actively developing them and has increased R&D efforts towards them, and the carmaker will be attempting to carry out small small-scale tests, according to the report.
These tests are increasing in scale, with Honda having announced that it will be investing $310 million (RM1.43 billion) into an experimental production line project to evaluate the mass production of solid-state batteries.
Beyond Honda, the entire automotive industry faces the issue of cost, as supply chain issues could diminish the cost reductions already made on lithium-ion batteries, which began at US$1,200 (RM5,529) per kWh, driving down to US$132 (RM608) per kWh in the past decade.
Further cost reductions in batteries will have to come from cheaper raw materials rather than improved efficiency from the battery itself, and with the aforementioned supply chain issues, raw materials for batteries are not likely to be found.
This means that the present day prices for EVs might be as low as they can currently get, and with that in mind, Gardner’s view that solid-state batteries will be the turning point crossing the price-per-kWh threshold could be likely, according to the report.
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EV is always as dirty as gasoline, TNB even burning more coal to generate electricity. Now even worst, EV is more costly than gasoline…
You do your bit in your carbon emmission, and you let TNB worry about about theirs.
<> EV already as dirty as gasoline burning coal plus highly toxic battery, now even more costly… betoi betoi sohai … dont blindly follow the mask man , go to Hydrogen Fuel Cell instead …
They want only the rich to own cars while the rest of us peasants have to ‘subscribe’ to cars and eat cockroaches.
Mean do not expect the mileage to be improved as car makers are focusing to reduce cost. Mean do not buy EV even afford as car makers may stop producing EV due to limited resources available for battery raw materials. Still PHEV the best., no worry of crossing states.
Imagine forking out RM300k for a car and could not drive it beyond the residing state due to range anxiety.
EVs are still at the nascent stage – the infrastructure is just not enough to justify owning one, what more the steep entry prices, when you can get a very decent ICE equivalent!
Unfortunately, our environment cant wait for you to earn rm300k before we start saving it.
So Honda just admitted what the industry won’t say. That EV is expensive and will remain expensive until the industry can get their acts together – and which they won’t – not with current technology, so interested buyers should hope & pray that new emerging techs ie solid state batteries will be a thing to reduce the cost price for EV, however nobody mentioned that prices of semicons – which solid states are based upon – could also see historic price rise as we seen today with chips, CPUS & GPUS today so rather than hope prices will drop, which they won’t do as said above, you are better off finding income which can afford you an EV or else just stick to your ICE vehicles for ever and ever.
And no this is not about Government being incompetent or incapable to make EVs affordable. That train has left the tracks and went down a deep hole of unbelievability.
there’s a hidden agenda for all these EV promo. Now its proven the cost of entry is high and cost of running is also higher than ICE w/out any tangible benefit on carbon release. The whole supply chain of power generation does not justify benefits – the may say improvement of renewable energy such as solar farm – however it does take a lot of land and space which can be used for farming – even worse it promotes deforestation. Nuclear power – ticking time bomb – just ask Japan. ICE can be improved in term of efficiency
Honda talk nonsense. Selling price of car eventually is dictated by government, thru incentives and duty free. For example the selling price of a Electric Mini Cooper SE is much cheaper than Petrol Mini Cooper S due to the former being duty free. Honda always talk about cost. Cost low so what? They make SOHC non VVT engines. COST LOW to them, but the selling price of their car not lower to customers. So don’t come here talk about cost. Customer only interested in the price he pays.
The government can only incentivize so much. Even without duties EVs are still at least twice the price for the same class. The battery is what makes them expensive. The 97% price drop of Lithium batteries over the decades is from exhaustive R&D, and economy of scale from all the electronic devices and tools in the world that rely on them. No government incentives were involved. EV battery packs are expensive because they are big. A small 12Wh li-po for a phone is very affordable, but the smallest EV packs are at least 2000 times larger. Now however, with EVs the focus is to do away with these “gadget battery” chemistries and develop something safer, more robust, and cheaper. But, how would a new battery be developed if the ones investing in them (the car makers) don’t make enough profit to fund it? The market is small enough as it is to generate the revenue.
And don’t forget that with lowered prices comes the caveat of higher demand. When demands soar they would also then need to invest in improving or adding manufacturing facilities (batteries included). But, without a healthy profit how could they?