The metals cost more, the price fell anyway
BloombergNEF, a market research firm that runs an annual survey of battery prices, says the worldwide average price of a lithium ion battery pack fell 8% in 2025 to 108 dollars per kilowatt hour, a record low. A kilowatt hour is the unit that measures how much energy a battery can store. The International Energy Agency states the same 8% fall independently in its own 2026 report. The surprising part is not the fall. It happened in the same year that 2 of the metals inside those packs, cobalt and lithium, both got more expensive.
Cobalt got pricier after Congo capped exports
The United States spot price for refined cobalt cathode, the price paid for immediate delivery rather than a price agreed ahead of time, rose from 16.77 dollars a pound in 2024 to an estimated 21 dollars a pound in 2025, a rise of about 25%, a MAOWCE calculation. The cash price for cobalt on the London Metal Exchange rose from 11.84 to 15 dollars a pound over the same 2 years, a rise of about 27%, also a MAOWCE calculation. The Democratic Republic of the Congo replaced an export ban with a quota, a legal limit on how much a company can export in a set period, permitting 18,125 metric tons of cobalt to leave the country for the rest of 2025. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence reports that cobalt hydroxide, a cobalt product used to make battery chemicals, more than doubled in price over the year, holding above 14 dollars a pound.
The battery pack figure is BloombergNEF stated 8% fall, source 1, confirmed independently by the International Energy Agency, source 2. The 2 cobalt figures are MAOWCE calculations from United States spot and London Metal Exchange cash cobalt prices in source 4.
Show the numbers
| Battery pack price | 8 |
| Cobalt cathode, United States spot | 25 |
| Cobalt cash, London Metal Exchange | 27 |
Lithium turned upward too
Lithium prices moved the same direction. The United States Geological Survey reports that the spot price, the price for immediate delivery, of lithium carbonate in China rose from about 9,300 to about 10,300 dollars a metric ton across 2025. Lithium hydroxide spot rose from about 10,300 to about 11,200 dollars a metric ton over the same year.
Both figures are within year China spot prices reported by the United States Geological Survey, not a year over year comparison.
Show the numbers
| Lithium carbonate spot | 9,300 to 10,300 dollars a metric ton |
| Lithium hydroxide spot | 10,300 to 11,200 dollars a metric ton |
Why the price still fell
BloombergNEF says the rise in metal prices did not reach cell or pack prices, and names 3 reasons. China has consistently produced more battery cells than the world needs, creating intense competition among manufacturers, most of all in stationary storage, where many suppliers can serve the same project. China also makes nearly all the world lithium iron phosphate cells, a cheaper chemistry that does not use cobalt at all, and its growing share absorbed some of the pricier cobalt cost. The International Energy Agency adds that many of the companies making cathode material, a core component inside a battery cell, have been operating at a loss since 2023, and that China alone holds over 80% of the world battery manufacturing capacity, more than the industry currently needs.