Battery costs drop even faster while electric car sales continue to rise

Valentin Muenzel writes in The Conversation (14.4.15) that the cost of batteries is one of the major hurdles standing in the way of widespread use of electric cars and household solar batteries:

‘The cost of batteries is one of the major hurdles standing in the way of widespread use of electric cars and household solar batteries. By storing surplus energy, batteries allow households to reduce power bought from the electricity grid.  Unfortunately, batteries have so far been prohibitively expensive.

‘… Falling prices will pave the way for what could be a rapid transition to a cleaner energy system.’

Going electric and banning new petrol-powered cars could be Australia’s next big light bulb moment

Peter Martin writes in The Conversation (25.5.21) about how the Coalition in office previously turned off an industry’s life support ‘without blinking’ – the author argues that, in relation to petrol-powered cars, it’s time for Australia’s government to do it again.

‘In 2007 Malcolm Turnbull turned off an industry’s life support without blinking. The industry made light bulbs, of the traditional kind; so energy-inefficient they lost most of it as heat.

‘… Turnbull was able to do it because Australia no longer made light globes. There was no domestic industry – and no jobs – to protect.

‘Australia stopped making cars in 2017. The thousands of workers who used to assemble cars in Australia no longer have those jobs. Which means there’s no car industry to protect.

‘We have the opportunity to do to traditionally-powered cars what we did to incandescent light bulbs. And the need. We’ve all but committed ourselves to net-zero emissions by 2050.’

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