Ralf Speth, the CEO of Jaguar Land Rover, said in a recent interview that, while the development costs for eco-friendly means of transportation may not go down in the next several years, the situation might change if the companies start investing more into infrastructure development.
Speth is convinced that the right way to go is to expand charging station networks worldwide. This would enable car manufacturers to produce lighter, more compact batteries and cut the prices across the board, because the traction battery is allegedly the single most expensive part of any electric powertrain.
The way things stand now, the companies are more or less compelled to fit their cars with large and capacious batteries, since there are regions where high-power charging stations are still rare, if at all present. Despite this, JLR CEO said he was positive that the situation would improve eventually.
The Jaguar I-Pace, the British corporation’s first-ever all-electric vehicle, relies on an enormous 90kWh battery array to keep it going for at least 470 kilometers (292 miles).