Ralf Speth claims battery prices won't reduce for five years; better charging network would allow use of smaller batteries
Mark Tisshaw
16 September 2019

The price of batteries for electric cars won't come down for up to five years, according to Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth.

As a result, he wants to see charging infrastructure drastically improve to allow drivers to feel more confident. Should that happen, car makers won't have to fit batteries as large as they currently do to their electric cars, bringing the costs down as a result because the battery is often the most expensive component.

“I hope the infrastructure is fixed,” Speth said. “The price of electric cars is still too high, as we need to do a big range. So, you have a big battery that is needed, as you can’t charge the car. If you can charge, we can make the battery smaller and bring the cost down."

He continued: “There will be no reduced cost for three to five years. We need a more dense charging network, more quality and more quantity, that are more standardised and provide faster charging. You clearly need a good spread across the country, not just in London.”

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Speth is convinced that electric cars are the future and that charging infrastructure will catch up as more are made by more car companies. “With more demand for chargers, it will come," he said. "It will come later, but it will come.”

Jaguar Land Rover’s first production EV, the Jaguar I-Pace, officially manages up to 292 miles on a single charge from a 90kWh battery pack, with prices starting from just under £65,000. The firm has only recently gone public with its next EV, the all-new XJ luxury saloon, while plans for further electric Jaguar and Land Rover models are believed to be well advanced. 

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Comments
7

16 September 2019
Companies like LG Chem must think that every day is Christians! Lithium batteries are the new gold rush.

16 September 2019

 Better Batteries, better charging infrastructure, these are the two keys things, as for Car prices coming down, well, it’s more like ten than five years......

Peter Cavellini.

16 September 2019

Electric cars, while utilising litium ion batteries will never get cheaper.

The world will simply run out of lithium before we can make enough.

BEVs will only reduce in price once we move away from elements which are rare on earth - cabon based batteries exist in a research context. Once industiralised, BEV prices can fall - otherwise they'll only get more expensive.

jer

16 September 2019

 For many more fast charging stations. Petrol companies are wondering what's in it for them so are slow. Until it's at scale electric will be a niche. I guess govt are busy with other things can't think what.

16 September 2019

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16 September 2019

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Verna schoch

16 September 2019

Speth can't solve this without help at the governmental level - or, however unlikely, an energy company seeing an opportunity.

One thought though - JLR dealers are idle at night, maybe that's a parking/charging option in congested areas. Then, to take a leaf from Tesla for JLR to set up a limited infrastructure. Maybe they have enough data on iPace journeys to know where a vehicle starts>charges>stops at the destination. If so it's not impossible to model where a JLR charger might make a difference - for all electric cars OR (like Tesla) JLR-only cars.

This is my simplistic thought and I'm sure there's an expert here to tell me that it can't work - totally OK if you do BTW!

 

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