China’s EV market shows the future is already here

FORGET everything you’ve heard about how electric vehicles (EVs) are running out of charge. In the biggest car market, they’re on the brink of victory – and the rest of the world will soon follow.

Battery metals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt are down by, respectively, 80 per cent, 30 per cent, and 25 per cent over the past year. The cells made out of these metals are heading the same direction, with Goldman Sachs Group predicting a 40 per cent drop in pack prices between 2023 and 2025, putting the global average well below US$100 per kilowatt-hour.

That’s a level that carmakers have long viewed as analogous to the technological singularity, the point where artificial intelligence (AI) theorists believe machines will irreversibly take over. Below US$100 per kWh, EVs will be cheaper than petroleum-powered counterparts to buy as well as run. The days of the internal combustion engine will be strictly numbered.