Great News..... Sodium Ion Batteries Are Coming

[ElectrifyingMe25]

CATL, the largest manufacturer of automotive rechargeable batteries, has developed a rechargeable battery that's very close to the energy density of Li-Ion, and the cells are made using sodium instead of lithium. It's a game changer. The Na-Ion batteries could cost as much as 90% less than Li-Ion. Also, the energy density continues to improve.

These batteries can last as long as 3 million miles. Amazing. In other words they don't degrade.

Soon, EVs will be significantly cheaper than ICE cars.

The Na-Ion batteries will be available in newer EVs in the next year or so. It has been amazing watching battery research progress over the last 5 years.

Now, we need to work on getting the charging infrastructure up to par to handle the coming surge in EV ownership.

Check out the YouTube videos on this subject. The Electric Viking has a great video explaining the breakthrough.

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[ka-chow]

Pretty exciting stuff! I wonder. As other platforms aged 3rd parties starting making their own replacement battery solutions. I wonder could this one day be configured to replace our existing lightning modules?

 

[ElectrifyingMe25]

You can bet there will be replacement batteries/packs for the old fashioned Li-Ion packs. It all boils down to demand and the potential to make money. I'd be willing to pay for an upgrade that gave me more range for the same size pack and can't catch fire.

 

[Yellow Buddy]

CATL, the largest manufacturer of automotive rechargeable batteries, has developed a rechargeable battery that's very close to the energy density of Li-Ion, and the cells are made using sodium instead of lithium. It's a game changer. The Na-Ion batteries could cost as much as 90% less than Li-Ion. Also, the energy density continues to improve.

These batteries can last as long as 3 million miles. Amazing. In other words they don't degrade.

Soon, EVs will be significantly cheaper than ICE cars.

The Na-Ion batteries will be available in newer EVs in the next year or so. It has been amazing watching battery research progress over the last 5 years.

Now, we need to work on getting the charging infrastructure up to par to handle the coming surge in EV ownership.

Check out the YouTube videos on this subject. The Electric Viking has a great video explaining the breakthrough.

I’ve grown to be a skeptic. I feel like I’ve been waiting on sodium, solid state, graphene for decades and it feels a bit like Teslas full self driving…coming this year! Promise..

 

[Bigisland Guy]

Kind of reminds me of all those articles in 1960's Popular Mechanics Magazine "This is going to happen soon" . From Lab to Production..........???? not being skeptical at all.

 

[fhteagle]

Na-ion is honestly better suited to fixed storage. Not that it can't go in vehicles, but it has got some ugly drawbacks in vehicular applications. The key one that makes it a poor choice for vehicles is bad round trip efficiency, especially at anything higher than trickle charging C rates. Na-ion will take some pressure off of lithium production as it scales into fixed storage, though, so it's still worth the R&D in my opinion.

Cringe at the link to Sam Evans though. His actual research to hype ratio is basically zero. To the point where he hyped an obvious perpetual motion machine type scam...

 

[jdmackes]

Na-ion is honestly better suited to fixed storage. Not that it can't go in vehicles, but it has got some ugly drawbacks in vehicular applications. The key one that makes it a poor choice for vehicles is bad round trip efficiency, especially at anything higher than trickle charging C rates. Na-ion will take some pressure off of lithium production as it scales into fixed storage, though, so it's still worth the R&D in my opinion.

Cringe at the link to Sam Evans though. His actual research to hype ratio is basically zero. To the point where he hyped an obvious perpetual motion machine type scam...

I didn't watch this video, but I did watch a different one about sodium ion. Evident CATL is already making them, and they're making hybrid packs with lithium pouches beside sodium ion. That way you can get the benefits of both, so it could be an interesting thing if the prices can come down. Sodium ion is still too expensive as it doesn't have economies of scale yet.

 

[Yellow Buddy]

Na-ion is honestly better suited to fixed storage. Not that it can't go in vehicles, but it has got some ugly drawbacks in vehicular applications. The key one that makes it a poor choice for vehicles is bad round trip efficiency, especially at anything higher than trickle charging C rates. Na-ion will take some pressure off of lithium production as it scales into fixed storage, though, so it's still worth the R&D in my opinion.

Cringe at the link to Sam Evans though. His actual research to hype ratio is basically zero. To the point where he hyped an obvious perpetual motion machine type scam...

Two sides of a coin. For the US market this is a deal breaker, but for urban Chinese markets where they’re accustomed to battery swapping; it might work as they can recharge slowly and steadily on the shelf.

 

[Rice_classic]

I’ve grown to be a skeptic. I feel like I’ve been waiting on sodium, solid state, graphene for decades and it feels a bit like Teslas full self driving…coming this year! Promise..

Ditto.

Like Fusion - it seems like it's always 5 years away! The only hope I have here is that this isn't some start up that discovered something with no pathway to scale - this is CATL who already has claimed scalability in this solution.

 

[Pod]

I’ve always wondered if a battery “swap” was possible for Lightnings if better battery chemistry is discovered.

 

[Maineiac12]

Another day, another battery “breakthrough.”

🥱

Wake me up if something ever goes into production…

 

[ElectrifyingMe25]

Another day, another battery “breakthrough.”

🥱

Wake me up if something ever goes into production…

But you have to appreciate the billions of dollars going into the development of ́new and better batteries. Look at where we were 3 years ago vs. today. LiFePo4 is displacing Li-Ion, and they are safer. Something new is always around the corner, and that's great for us.

Soon, we will be driving vehicles with 1000 mile batteries.

 

[RLXXI]

But you have to appreciate the billions of dollars going into the development of ́new and better batteries. Look at where we were 3 years ago vs. today. LiFePo4 is displacing Li-Ion, and they are safer. Something new is always around the corner, and that's great for us.

Soon, we will be driving vehicles with 1000 mile batteries.

Exactly! 2 years ago solar storage was a dream, today it's a reality thanks to those lfp batteries, very affordable now. I've got 43kWh worth so far not counting the truck obviously lol.

 

[chl]

It seems from this article that Chinese EV makers are shooting for putting the new CATL sodium ion batteries in their 2026 models.

The "Naxtra achieves an energy density of 175 Wh/kg, just behind the 185 Wh/kg of average EV lithium-iron-phosphate batteries"...

Maybe Ford should take note and think about switching from the planned LFP batteries in the next generation trucks (the energy density is closely comparable) @Ford Motor Company ?

" Naxtra is currently being developed for six major Chinese automakers’ 2026 models. Sales of Chinese EVs have significantly increased in recent years, and combining these lower initial costs with a battery that could last up to 3.6 million miles or over 10,000 cycles could be revolutionary. By comparison, Tesla’s lithium iron phosphate batteries typically last 3,000 to 4,000 charge cycles before capacity degrades below the 70-80% threshold."

https://www.autoblog.com/news/new-ev-battery-aims-to-last-shocking-amount-of-miles-for-less-money

Of course, 3.6 million miles will likely do away with a lot of "planned obsolescence."

And, there is the stupid tariff trade war to make progress difficult and expensive for no good reason which will mean the rest of the world will have the next cutting edge technology and the US could get left behind in the exhaust.

 

[Rice_classic]

Exactly! 2 years ago solar storage was a dream, today it's a reality thanks to those lfp batteries, very affordable now. I've got 43kWh worth so far not counting the truck obviously lol.

Just the price of consumer LFP is crazy. 2 years I pulled the generator out of my motorhome and replaced with 600AH of LFP and a 2500watt inverter. That battery bank is 6 batteries and each was $350. Now I can 330AH batteries for $320 and get more AH in a 1/3rd of the batteries for less than 1/2 the price - and that's a big deal because it's about the ONLY thing that's gotten cheaper lately!

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