The Big Obstacle on the Road to Electric Vehicles

Batteries may not follow the same deflationary cost path as consumer electronics and solar panels, weakening a central pillar of the global auto industry’s emissions strategy.

If the cost of batteries doesn’t continue to fall, long-range affordable EVs will remain a pipe dream. Car makers will need to find other ways to hit emissions targets. Hybrids, which require much smaller batteries, are one option. Short-range EVs are another, but would require heavy investment in charging infrastructure to alleviate consumers’ so-called “range anxiety.”

As computing power has grown exponentially in recent decades, batteries have improved only gradually—such is the difficulty of the chemistry involved. Car makers would be unwise to pin all their hopes on such a troublesome technology suddenly falling into line.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-big-obstacle-on-the-road-to-electric-vehicles-11563459592?reflink=e2twmkts

Laters..