Tesla's Battery Gigafactory May Achieve Nirvana: $100 Per Kilowatt-Hour, Report Says

Many within the electric car industry believe that $100 per kilowatt-hour will be the tipping point for electric-car batteries.

It is the point at which electric vehicles will be able to compete directly with internal combustion vehicles on price, and therefore a major step in boosting sales.

According to investment pundits at The Motley Fool (via Charged EVs), the Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] battery gigafactory could achieve that $100-per-kWh battery cost.

That's because it could overachieve on its stated goal of cutting 30 percent from today's battery costs.

We already know that Tesla's gigafactory will be huge.

The company's initial projected figures put the plant at between 500 and 1,000 acres, and once up to full capacity it is expected to employ 6,500 people.

By 2020, at its peak, it's slated to produce 35 gigawatt-hours per year of battery cells, and 50 GWh per year of battery packs--enough to supply Tesla's projections for half a million electric vehicles a year in 2020.

The idea behind the factory isn't just volume, but cutting costs. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has often said that savings of 30 percent on today's battery prices are possible with the gigafactory.

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The company is thought to pay $200 to $250 per kilowatt-hour for its batteries today, the lowest cost of any plug-in car maker.