Employees examine a Rivian R1T electrical car (EV) pickup truck on the meeting line on the firm’s manufacturing facility in Regular, Illinois, US., on Monday, April 11, 2022.
Jamie Kelter Davis | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
Uncooked materials prices for electrical automobiles greater than doubled throughout the coronavirus pandemic, in keeping with a brand new report Wednesday by AlixPartners, forcing automakers from General Motors and Tesla to start-ups like Lucid and Rivian to considerably increase costs on new automobiles.
Common uncooked materials price for an EV totaled $8,255 per car as of Might, up 144% from $3,381 per car in March 2020, led by supplies corresponding to cobalt, nickel and lithium – all important for the production of batteries used to energy electrical vehicles and vans. EV-specific prices have elevated to $4,500 from roughly $2,000 up to now two years, in keeping with AlixPartners.
The fee will increase aren’t restricted to EVs: Uncooked materials prices for conventional automobiles with inner combustion engines have additionally roughly doubled throughout that point interval to $3,662 per car, up 106% from a median of $1,779 per car in March 2020. That uptick is being led by will increase in metal and aluminum.
The fee spikes come as automakers aggressively launch new EVs over the following a number of years. AlixPartners predicts the variety of EV fashions accessible on the worldwide market to extend from 80 final yr to greater than 200 by 2024.
In consequence, AlixPartners expects the upper prices to pressure a relative slowdown in EV launches, as automakers transfer away from pushing electrical automobiles to market as shortly as doable and refocus on profitability.
Ford Motor CFO John Lawler final week stated rising commodity prices have worn out the revenue it initially anticipated to make on its electric Mustang Mach-E. Whereas the car was worthwhile when it was first launched in late 2020, he stated that is not the case.
Within the meantime automakers are elevating costs for consumers.
GM on Friday introduced it could increase the value of its electric Hummer by $6,250. The automaker blamed increased costs for components, expertise and logistics. Tesla, Rivian, Lucid and others beforehand introduced notable increases in the starting costs of their EVs.
—CNBC’s John Rosevear contributed to this text.
