[Rich44]

I saw recently about Sodium Ion batteries that were due to come to market soon, well turns out they’re here already as of January two companies in China one backed by VW have launched cats running these new batteries.

Plus sides are no risk of runaway, can be run to zero volts without degradation, Sodium is plentiful and costs about a hundred times less than lithium, also less harsh chemicals needed to refine it.

Down sides slightly less energy dense although huge progress been made apparently, also battery life again huge progress made

Also they can be made on the same equipment with few tweaks.

The really interesting thing is they don’t lose power at low temps so no loss of range in winter, no preheat required etc

There’s a video here covers most of it

 

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[YesOuiSi]

There’s a fair bit of new tech lined up for release to public over the next few years. Unfortunately we lost John B. Goodenough last year who was still pushing things forward but his team are still working.

[Dafydd]

@Rich44

Real step forward especially with regards to not having to use rare expensive and polluting minerals and metals. A company from Sweden called Northvolt have just developed a Sodium ion battery with a similar charge density to the top Lithium ion ones and it’s ready for mass production.

The great thing about Battery tech is that there are so many different options being explored. A Ferrous Oxide battery developed by Zeeker, part of Geeley recently attained 648 miles on a single charge, which in itself is impressive but even more so is the fact that it was attained in temperatures between -2 and -12 centigrade.

We live in Interesting times.

[kezo]

Unfortunately, sodium ions are three times heavier and a third larger than lithium ions seen in other battery chemistries. Because  electrodes in sodium-ion batteries must be thicker and heavier to hold the same amount of energy, isn’t practical solution and are most useful in low-cost small city cars, like the BYD Seagul or two-wheelers that don’t need the higher energy density. Sodium ion bateries would be useful where cheap large storage facilities are required and the size of the battery pack wouldn’t matter, such as Wind Farms for example.

 

[Author]

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