Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Energy Prices and Electric Cars

If electric cars are going to catch on faster than anyone expected, it will be because of an increase in the price of gasoline and a decrease in the price of batteries. When you glance at world oil prices and U.S. gasoline prices over the last two months, the increase in gasoline prices is not hard to imagine. Battery prices too are making a move, owing not just to engineering advances but also economies of scale. The electric storage price point the auto industry is looking at is $200 per kilowatt-hour, and the question is no longer whether that is possible, but how soon.