Management consulting company PRTM says experts underestimate the projected demand of electric vehicles - and those companies and nations that can ramp up production for batteries stand to profit as electric cars become cost competitive with gasoline-powered vehicles.
That's expected to happen in the next six to eight years across the globe, according to a PRTM representative.
PRTM argues that plug-in vehicle volumes will ramp up significantly in 2016 in Europe and 2018 in the U.S. as costs approach gas-only cars.
The U.S. federal government last August announced a $2.4bn investment in batteries that was matched by private companies. Right now, lithium ion battery manufacturing is dominated by companies in Asia, particularly China.
A few more points from the PRTM forecast:
• Technology advancements will not drastically affect prices until 2020. • Battery costs will go down by about half based on supply chain expansion. • Plug-in vehicles will represent about 10 percent of new cars sales. • The Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt are still only attractive to early adopters and fleet operators.
