The race for a better EV battery

John A. Cook
CIM
Senior Vice President, Portfolio Manager, Team Co-Lead
Gregory Payne
PhD,CFA
Senior Vice-President, Portfolio Manager, Team Co-Lead

Last year an astonishing 10.5 million electric vehicles (EVs) were sold globally. Some believe EVs will account for as much as 50% of the market by 2040. There is zero chance we’ll meet these targets, however, without better batteries – much better.

First, they will need to cost less. For almost a decade, declining prices were the norm but last year inflation also hit battery manufacturers hard – average battery pack prices rose from $141 per kilowatt hour (kWh) to $152/kWh. Sector analysts generally agree batteries need to cost less than $100/kWh for EVs to be economically competitive with gasoline powered cars. The second improvement needed is battery density, or the maximum driving range for a given battery pack weight. The final challenges are related to charging: safety, speed of charging, and number of charges before functional degradation (currently around 3,000 cycles). 

We take a deep dive into the battery structure and how this all works to understand the opportunities and challenges in the sustainability space.

Meet your authors

John A. Cook
CIM
Senior Vice President, Portfolio Manager, Team Co-Lead

Joined Mackenzie in 2021; investment experience since 1991

  • John brings 30 years of experience ranging from mutual funds, venture capital and social finance
  • Before co-founding Greenchip in 2007, John was President of MaRS Discovery District, one of Canada’s largest innovation hubs. He also held a number of executive positions at Canadian mutual fund companies
  • BA from Queen's University; Chartered Investment Manager (CIM) designation

Gregory Payne
PhD,CFA
Senior Vice-President, Portfolio Manager, Team Co-Lead

Joined Mackenzie in 2021; investment experience since 1999

  • Greg has more than 20 years of experience in the financial industry, with over a decade focused exclusively on environmental sectors
  • Prior to co-founding Greenchip in 2007, Greg was involved in managing retail and institutional assets at a large capital management firm
  • Honours BSc in Statistics; MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Toronto.