Product Update: Truflation EV Index Enhancements

At Truflation, we continuously refine our indexes to deliver more accurate, transparent, and actionable insights into real-world economic trends.

One of our flagship products, the Truflation Electric Vehicle Commodity Index (often called the EV Index), tracks commodity cost dynamics central to EV production, focusing on key metals like cobalt, copper, nickel, palladium, and platinum. This index helps investors, manufacturers, and analysts monitor how raw material prices influence the broader EV market.

Recently, we've rolled out a significant enhancement to the EV Index by upgrading its battery cost model. This update makes the index even more precise in capturing the real cost pressures facing the electric vehicle industry. Here's a breakdown of what's new, why it matters, and how it improves the overall user experience.

What the Updated EV Index Now Includes

The core of the enhancement is a more detailed battery cost model that better reflects the realities of modern EV manufacturing. Key improvements include:

• Differentiation by EV type — Not all EVs depend on batteries in the same way or to the same degree. We now model battery cost structures by EV type:
  • Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV)
  • Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV)
  • Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV)
  • Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV)
• Metal-level inputs based on representative material intensity per vehicle — The model incorporates realistic estimates of amounts of key commodities in a typical vehicle of each type.
• Conversion of commodity prices into comparable cost units — Raw futures prices are standardized, ensuring apples-to-apples comparisons across materials aligned with battery composition.
• Aggregation into a consolidated battery cost signal — These granular inputs feed into a single, unified battery cost component within the overall index.

The currently refined approach maintains full consistency with the index's original goal: reliably tracking EV cost trends driven by commodity prices, while adding layers of sophistication to address

Why This Enhancement Adds Real Value

Different EV categories have materially different battery requirements; for example, BEVs rely heavily on large battery packs, while HEVs and PHEVs use smaller ones, and FCEVs emphasize fuel cells with different material needs. By modeling these distinctions explicitly:

• The index better captures structural variations in battery costs across segments.
• Commodity price swings translate into more proportionate and realistic impacts on the overall EV cost signal.
• Users get clearer visibility into the true drivers of EV cost changes over time, whether it's a shift in metal prices, evolving vehicle mix, or category-specific dynamics.

In short, the update makes the index a sharper tool for understanding what's really moving the needle in the EV economy.

Greater Transparency for Users

We're not stopping at better calculations. Alongside this model upgrade, we're increasing transparency by making more granular underlying data available to users. Now you can dive deeper into:

• The individual contributions of specific battery materials to the overall cost signal.
• Cost dynamics differences across EV categories (BEV vs. PHEV vs. others).
• How changes in the global vehicle sales mix (e.g., more BEVs dominating growth) influence the headline index value.

This added layer of detail empowers analysts, researchers, and decision-makers to perform their own breakdowns and validations.

Looking Ahead

At Truflation, index updates like this one reflect our commitment to evolving with the markets we track. The EV sector is moving fast: battery chemistries are advancing, supply chains are shifting, and adoption patterns are changing. By continually improving our models and opening up the data, we aim to provide the most reliable, real-time reference point for EV commodity costs.

If you're already using the Truflation EV Index (available in our marketplace), check out the updated methodology and data layers. For those new to it, explore how it can give you an edge in understanding one of the most dynamic sectors in the global economy.

Stay tuned for more updates.