Comment on Trump Is Obsessed With Oil. But Chinese Batteries Will Soon Run the World
avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Beyond EVs, the much cheaper sodium-ion battery is entering mass production in China. We can already buy B-grade cells on AliExpress. This will have implications for all sorts of use cases that could use batteries but don’t due to cost.
Rekall_Incorporated@piefed.social 17 hours ago
To my understanding, these aren’t suitable for many use cases we associate with batteries (smartphones, EVs, laptops), but it has the potential to have a massive impact on utility scale battery systems and industrial use cases.
avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 10 hours ago
Yeah they can’t match top of the line Li-Ion like lithium-cobalt batteries. Neither can LFP, but LFP is good enough for lower range EVs cars as they’re already used in such. Sodium ion has even lower density than LFP but not dramatically so and it’s still early days so their density is likely to improve. Look at these two cells currently on sale:
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The first one is a CATL LFP. The second is some smaller manufacturer’s sodium ion. The 729Whr vs 713Whr, 1944cm³ vs 2593cm³. If the sodium ones can be made cheap enough, these are already usable in low range vehicles like Nissan Leaf or equivalent. And then there’s buses, trucks, other ICE powered equipment.
Tricking0148@lemmynsfw.com 7 hours ago
I just replaced my Acid starter battery in my car for a sodium one. 12Kg less weight, double the lifespawn, better low temp performance. All at the same price.
Neither Lithium nor LFP can do that.
If this holds true, Sodium definitely has a place.