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Panasonic Aims to Cut Cobalt in Batteries 50% by 2020
Panasonic Corp. says it expects to slash the amount of cobalt required in its electric-car batteries 50% within three years.
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Panasonic Corp. says it expects to slash the amount of cobalt required in its electric-car batteries 50% within three years.
The company tells reporters in Japan it has reached that goal in the lab but now needs to move the technology to a production-ready process. Panasonic already has lowered the cobalt content in its nickel-cobalt-aluminum cathode batteries to 10%.
Cobalt has emerged as a critical cost element in EV batteries as production volumes rise. Cobalt prices has skyrocketed 270% since the beginning of 2016 to about $80,500 today. Panasonic said previously it hopes to develop cobalt-free batteries, but it has not indicated when that could happen.
Half the world’s cobalt supply comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mining there is plagued by hazardous conditions, child labor and an unstable government.
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