Panasonic has revealed plans to halve the cobalt content of its automotive batteries in the next two to three years.
The company responsible for Tesla's current production model battery cells has already tuned the production of its battery so that cobalt only makes up around 10% of the total content.
According to a report from Reuters, Panasonic said that it was aiming to develop cobalt-free batteries but had not given an official time-frame for the program.
Panasonic Automotive chief Yoshio Ito said that the company had already achieved the feat with prototype batteries but that there would be some time before it was implemented into vehicle models.
“At the research and development level, we've already achieved such batteries. But we need to go through various evaluation processes before mass-producing them.”
The move to reduce cobalt content has come as mineral prices have multiplied in recent years and a wave of new EV models is expected to result in further price increases.