By 2030, EVs could cost the same as their gas guzzling siblings

0:00What would it take to charge up the electric vehicle market? From American public media, this is Marketplace Tech. I'm Megan McCarty-Karino. Marketplace Tech is supported by GEP with GEP key agentic AI and GEP smart software. GEP is at the forefront in agentic procurement orchestration and autonomous supply chains. Seems like every time we get a spike in gas prices, more people start talking about switching to an electric vehicle. But what converts that talk into action? Generally, according to market experts, it comes down to the upfront cost. Cars are expensive, and electric cars tend to be even more expensive. But that could change in the next few years as Marketplace's Novasafo reports.

1:02Americans just don't buy electric vehicles in large numbers. And the primary reason for that is the sticker price, says Stephanie Valdez-Streeti, of the data firm Cox Automotive. We still have a price premium for EVs, so we need more affordable, compelling EVs to really get into that next wave of adoption. That premium averages $8,000 over the cost of gasoline vehicles. And the single biggest reason is the battery inside. Since the battery is about 40% of the cost of a vehicle, the battery price going down is going to be critical. And we've seen that, right? The place we've seen that is China. We'll be right back. If you're a business leader, Intuit QuickBooks Payroll is an essential tool that completely integrates payroll, time tracking, HR, and your financials in a powerful all-in-one command center. No more juggling platforms are switching between vendors. All your data, synced into one platform, offering clarity and confidence to make smarter

2:05decisions and focus on what matters. This summer, QuickBooks Payroll evolves to support the entire team lifecycle, HR, time, benefits, and payroll all working together in one connected system that fully integrates with your books. You'll be able to onboard employees in one seamless flow that feeds directly into payroll, configure automated HR workflows for things like promotions or off-boarding, and track performance, time off, and benefits alongside payroll. Upgrade your workflow with QuickBooks Payroll today and get ready for the brand new tools coming soon. More at QuickBooks.com slash workforce. That's QuickBooks.com slash workforce. We're listening to Marketplace Tech, I'm Megan McCarty-Koreano. We're back with Marketplaces, Novosafo. One in every two Chinese consumers in the market for a new car are buying electric. In part, that's because of government incentives. But the main reason, says Colin McCarocker of Research Farm Bloomberg, NF, is that Chinese

3:08car buyers are seeing very different sticker prices than consumers in the US. When we look at the average purchase price of different vehicles in a market like China, they are on average that EV is now fully cost-competitive with internal combustion engine vehicles in terms of sticker price. China got there by integrating supply chains, a process the US is undertaking as well. More importantly, China bet on the right battery technology. The West bet on NMC. It's nickel, manganese, cobalt batteries, which need those namesake an expensive rare earths. China bet on LFP. Lithium, iron, phosphate batteries, bulkier but cheaper because iron is abundant. McCarocker says over the last decade or so, Chinese engineers have improved LFP batteries. They're now smaller and charge faster. That's made them attractive to automakers. It has become the main battery technology going into EVs around the world.

4:09So just last year, it crossed over 50% of all batteries going into EVs around the world are lithium iron, phosphate batteries. And as automakers accelerate adoption, electric vehicles in the US are forecast to get cheaper. Analysts say they'll cost the same as internal combustion engine vehicles or ice vehicles in industry parlance in the next three to four years. Among those making that prediction is CJ Finn. He leads advisory firm PWCs, automotive division. In order for adoption in the US to occur, it's an economics game and that 15 to 20% premium that battery electric vehicles have to the ice vehicles that needs to come down and we need to see parity. Once that happens, Finn expects electric vehicle sales here to accelerate to as much as 30% of all new vehicle sales. With hybrids taking about another third or slightly more than that and ice vehicles being a third. It will be a dramatic change. Last year, just 22% of all new vehicles purchased in the US were electric or hybrid.

5:14That was Marketplace's Novosafo. I'm Megan McCarty-Korino and that's Marketplace Tech. This is APM.