Battery Price & Performance = BottleneckThere is a common thread to how new technologies are developed and then commercialized. They dont just emerge low-priced and 100% finished. They typically begin at low volumes and high prices, with many technical kinks left to be worked out. Incremental improvements then take place until a certain tipping point is reached where the price/performance ratio is close enough to the competition that a large number of people will choose the new tech over the old one. This leads to the final phase, where economies of scale provide significant benefits and further refinements put the last nail in the coffin of the old tech. Its the same whether you look at the past 100 years for automobiles or the past 10 for cellphones. A similar thing is happening with electric car batteries – which are the bottleneck for EV adoption – and the main question is: How fast can we make progress and reach the tipping point?

via Electric Car Battery Prices on Track to Drop 70% by 2015, Says Energy Secretary : TreeHugger.