As electric cars become more popular there is increased attention paid to the environmental costs of rare earth mineral and lithium mining.
There are also serious concerns regarding the price of lithium going up due to the increased demand for lithium batteries as the economy electrifies and also due to the de-globalization process that has already begun to restrict the supply and availability of lithium and other natural resources.
People have been working on other types of batteries that are better and easier to source the raw materials and it looks like we have a viable battery contender.
Now we have the first Sodium-Ion Battery powered car coming out of China by JAC Motors. This car has a 25 kWh Na-ion Battery that will offer up to 250 km range.
The downside to Sodium-Ion batteries is they aren’t as energy dense as lithium-ion batteries and that is the case with JAC Motors battery.
But there are some advantages to Sodium-ion batteries:
- Na-Ion Batteries perform much better in cold temperatures than Li-ion
- Na-Ion Batteries have a longer lifespan than Lithium Ion batteries do
- Na-ion Batteries can be charged more times without losing capacity
- Na-ion Batteries can be charged faster than Li-ion batteries.
- Na-ion Batteries are less prone to overheating
- Sodium-Ion Batteries are safer as they aren’t flammable or explosive like Lithium-Ion batteries are.
- Sodium is abundant and easier to source
- Sodium batteries could reduce the price of Electric Vehicles as the battery should be less expensive when produced at scale.
Lithium-ion is still the dominant type of EV Battery but now that the Sodium-Ion (Na-ion) is here we may start to see a shift as the industry moves to a safer and more environmentally sustainable energy storage.
JAC Motors is a Chinese state-owned automobile and commercial vehicle manufacturer. JAC Motors was founded in 1964 and is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. With more than 50 years of automotive manufacturing experience, they have recently partnered with Volkswagon in its Chinese Electric Vehicle company. JAC has an annual production capacity of 1000, 000 vehicles.
Read the press release: JAC Motors unveil’s first sodium-ion battery vehicle
