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Battery costs have declined by 99% in the last three decades, making electrified transport a reality
(ourworldindata.org)
this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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While they are getting cheaper, lithium is not in infinite quantities, nor are rare earths and other elements within li-ion batteries. Also cobalt is problematic for many reasons. LFP are much better but still depend on lithium at least. So, price helps, but it's not everything.
There are sodium batteries, so even without lithium and rare earth metals there are options
Yes, yes, but they are not really used at the time and they might never be for transportation except for niche cases since the energy density. But who knows, they are certainly a promising technology.
The real world begs to differ: https://www.livescience.com/technology/electric-vehicles/china-puts-a-sodium-ion-battery-into-an-ev-for-the-first-time-it-can-drive-248-miles-on-a-single-charge
In the end it's a matter of price, reliability, usability, etc.
And while sodium based batteries have a worse energy density (space and weight wise) than lithium based batteries, they seem to have advantages in other areas (eg. no. of charge cycles, price per kWh, no thermal runaway, basically unlimited amounts of cheap sodium available).