Over the previous a number of months, although, battery firms and automakers in China have introduced forays into a brand new sort of battery chemistry that replaces lithium with sodium. These new sodium-ion batteries might assist push prices down for each stationary storage and electrical autos, if the know-how can meet the excessive expectations that firms are setting.
In March, JAC Motors, an automaker primarily based in China, launched pictures of a chartreuse automobile that it mentioned was the world’s first car constructed with sodium-ion batteries. The compact car was fitted with a 25-kilowatt-hour battery made by one other Chinese firm, HiNa Battery, and a press launch claimed the automobile’s vary was as much as 250 kilometers (155 miles). In April, China’s largest EV battery maker, CATL, introduced it had developed a sodium-ion battery that it deliberate to launch in a car made by automaker Chery. None of the 4 firms responded to a request for remark.
“They’re making these quite interesting announcements. There’s also a lot of details missing,” says Andy Leach, an power storage analyst at BNEF. Neither CATL nor HiNa has launched manufacturing timelines or detailed efficiency metrics for the batteries, and even revealed what particular kinds of sodium-ion batteries they’re planning to make use of. The thriller isn’t stunning for these massive firms, Leach says: “They tend to keep their cards close to their chests.” But it does depart questions on simply how prepared sodium-ion batteries may be for actual autos.
Sodium-based batteries usually are not new, however technical shortcomings have beforehand saved them from taking over lithium. Sodium-ion batteries historically put on out rapidly, they usually nonetheless have a decrease power density than lithium-ion, says Shirley Meng, a battery researcher on the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory.
That means in an effort to retailer the identical quantity of power, a sodium-based battery will must be greater and heavier than the equal lithium-based one. For EVs, meaning a shorter vary for a battery the identical dimension.
A heavier, cheaper battery may be preferable in some circumstances, like for the smaller, lower-range EVs frequent in China. JAC’s introduced vary is similar to that of the Wuling Hongguang Mini, one in every of China’s hottest EVs, whose long-range model can drive as much as 280 km (175 miles) on a single cost.
A considerably simpler marketplace for sodium-ion batteries may be stationary storage installations, like these used to offer backup energy for a house or enterprise or on {the electrical} grid. Some firms, like US-based Natron, are growing the chemistry particularly for stationary purposes, the place dimension and weight aren’t as important as they’re in a transferring automobile.