At an event in September celebrating Tesla’s efforts to develop more efficient lithium batteries, the head of the company said that the available technology will reduce the cost of traction batteries by 54%. Experts believe that Tesla is now the leader in the cheapest batteries, but by the end of the decade, General Motors may catch up with it.

Similar considerations, as reported by CNBC, are shared in their report by analysts from Cairn Energy Research Advisors. According to them, it now costs Tesla $ 142 to store one kWh of traction batteries, even if the company buys them from three main suppliers: Panasonic, LG Energy Solution (LG Chem) and CATL. For General Motors, this figure is about 10% worse, but reaches $ 169 per 1 kWh. The industry average storage cost of 1 kWh is $ 186, according to analysts’ calculations. In fact, Tesla has a 24% advantage over most of the competition.

The efforts of GM and partners to develop the production of traction batteries and optimize their cost, according to the authors of the forecast, will allow them to reach parity with Tesla by the end of the decade, which will also not stand still all this time. Until 2025, GM is going to invest $ 22 billion in the development of electric vehicles, next year in Ohio, a joint venture with LG Energy Solution is to start working on the production of batteries. The partners believe that it will allow, over time, to lower the cost of storing 1 kWh of electricity below $ 100.

Cairn Energy Research Advisors have warned Japanese automakers against being too slow in converting their fleet to electric traction. In their opinion, it is necessary to act decisively now, as Volkswagen is doing. Otherwise, there will be no room in the electric vehicle market for some of the existing automakers, including small Japanese companies. Toyota Motor, for example, is only set to unveil its first electric vehicle next week, targeting the global rather than regional markets. Its platform will be used by other brands as well.