In China, the first electric car equipped with a sodium battery has just seen the light of day. The advantage? Completely do without lithium! But, did you know that lithium-free batteries were already ready? Do you know everything that changes for electric cars?
In recent weeks, the news surrounding lithium-free electric car batteries has been intense. The global battery giant, CATL, announced the start of mass production of its sodium batteries this year. Before a few days later, still in China, a first manufacturer unveiled an electric car equipped with sodium batteries. This is a prototype, but the batteries come from a production line that has been in operation since November 2022.
The sodium battery, which completely does without lithium, will therefore become a reality in 2023. This has many consequences for electric cars. The first is the price. Sodium batteries are supposed to be cheaper than lithium batteries. Above all, sodium is a much more common and much less rare chemical element than lithium.
They also obviously do without cobalt (like lithium LFP lithium-iron-phosphate batteries), which makes them an additional advantage in ecological terms, but also ethically. Enough to make the electric car even “cleaner”. Remember, in fact, that the extraction of cobalt is often singled out, because it is carried out in countries where respect for human and worker rights is quite weak.
The disadvantages of sodium batteries
But the sodium battery does not only have advantages. It has a lower energy density than lithium batteries. This means that for the same physical size, it will contain less energy than a lithium battery. In other words, electric cars incorporating sodium batteries will benefit from a shorter range than their lithium-powered counterparts.
On the fast charging side, it would seem that sodium batteries are a little less good, but their rapid evolution could well prove us wrong. Indeed, CATL announces 15 minutes to go from 10 to 80% in the future. A figure to be compared to the 18 minutes claimed by the electric cars which currently recharge the fastest. But also compare with the 5 minutes promised by CATL on the next generation of lithium battery.
For all these reasons, specialists in electric car batteries consider that sodium batteries will initially be reserved for electric city cars, which do not need as much autonomy and rapid recharging as large road sedans. .
And you, did you know about sodium batteries?
As you have just seen, the news around sodium batteries is rich, but not very much covered outside of China, while these batteries will no doubt be found on electric cars sold in France. It is for this reason that we would like to ask you about your knowledge of the subject.
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Did you know that lithium-free batteries for electric cars are already ready?
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