Batteries got more expensive in 2022 after years of dropping prices — and it could delay access to cheaper electric cars

• The world may need to wait longer than expected for affordable electric cars.

• Lithium-ion battery packs got more expensive in 2022 after getting cheaper for years.

• Electric vehicles currently cost much more than their gas counterparts.

Truly affordable electric cars may be even farther away than we all thought. After dropping for years, the price of lithium-ion batteries — a costly and crucial component in electric vehicles — rose in 2022, according to a study from BloombergNEF released Tuesday.

The going price for the battery packs used in EVs and energy storage projects jumped to $151 per kilowatt-hour in 2022, a 7% increase over 2021. It's the first year-over-year cost increase BloombergNEF has seen since it started tracking the market for lithium-ion batteries in 2010.

As electric cars have graduated from niche to mainstream, battery costs have plummeted. ($1,306/kWh in 2010, according to BloombergNEF.) And those steadily declining prices held the promise that someday EVs would cost roughly the same as combustion-engine cars and trucks.

But surging prices for the raw materials that go into batteries, among other factors, have delayed that future, BloombergNEF said.