Cobalt-free batteries could make electric vehicles much cheaper

Tesla will be moving to a cobalt-free battery in its next generation of Chinese Model 3 cars.
Changing the current lithium ion batteries, which use expensive, environmentally-damaging and politically-insecure cobalt as a major component to help ensure the energy density the batteries need, is a significant move. Lithium ion phosphate (LFP, not LIP, for some reason) batteries could be a game-changer for electric cars, bringing their price down to much closer to the cost of a traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) car at last.
The battery (or batteries) in an EV represents an estimated third of the overall cost, and expensive batteries are a good part of the reason why the cars remain so expensive to purchase. Although the lifetime savings in gas still make them an economic proposition, the initial sticker shock remains a huge disincentive to EV take-up. Eliminating cobalt from the battery could take the cost per kWh of electric power production down below $100, which is estimated to be the cost that would allow EVs to become cheaper than ICE vehicles (just 10 years ago, this was sitting around $1,000/kWh, 5 years ago it was $381/kWh, currently it is around $149/kWh).
Both Tesla and other EV makers continue to work on new battery designs, some not even using lithium (which is also an expensive and potentially politically-difficult metal). In the meantime, the cheaper LFP batteries could breathe new life into EV sales, at a time when low oil prices and the distraction of the COVID-19 pandemic has put a damper on the development of the electric car market.