Over the past month almost 12,000 people in the US and Japan have made online reservations for the upcoming Nissan Leaf EV. The $33,000 vehicle, set to be released later this year, is the first affordable all-electric vehicle from a major auto manufacturer. It's an early adopter's dream. Now Nissan has revealed the secret behind the Leaf's reasonable price: a reasonably priced battery pack.
While we've seen published 'opinion' from the likes of Vinod Khosla, Boston consulting and engineering undergrads at Carnegie Mellon all predicted doom for EVs based on a lithium-ion batteries cost around $1000 to $1,200 per kWh, the Leaf's 24 kWh battery pack costs just $9,000 to produce, or $375 per kWh, according to a report in the Times of London. In comparison, the Chevy Volt battery pack reportedly costs $600 per kWh, and even the U.S. Advanced Battery Consortium only has a goal of producing batteries at $400 per kWh by mid-decade.
To those with ANY knowledge of the market Nissan's price comes as no great surprise. The wholesale price for small format Li-ion cells has been around that level for several years. 18650 li-ion batteries have been sold on eBay at the price since at least 2006. The battery pack in the Tesla Roadster reportedly costs around $20,000 which for 53 kWh is around the same price per kWh as the Nissan battery.
Nissan say they have been working on EV batteries for the past 18 years and are currently working on a lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide cathode based battery that they expect to be fitting to Leaf EVs by 2015. With double the energy density of current cells, they will give the Leaf 200 miles range on a single charge.
Nissan expect this range combined with the money savings on EV running costs will 'tip' the market the same way the European market for Diesel cars 'tipped' 15 years ago. (46% of new cars sold in EU are Diesel, as high as 77.3% in France - caused by long term Fuel costs around the US$8 a gallon mark)
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