One more nail in the fossil fuel coffin. CATL has launched fast-charging sodium batteries for vans and trucks that they say will be much cheaper than lithium batteries, as they'll last far longer.
cross-posted from: https://futurology.today/post/8383415
It's interesting to view Fossil Fuel industry supporters, and the demise of the industry as renewables take over the world, through Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's famous five stages of grief - denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Fewer and fewer people are in denial, and most seem to have moved on to the anger & bargaining stage. This latest announcement from CATL should bring more to the depression & acceptance stages.
Most vans and trucks are owned by businesses, big and small. Soon they'll have a choice. Stick with expensive gasoline, or go for the electric option that gets cheaper every year that passes. Being businesses, which do you guess they'll go for?
Up next - CATL says they have sodium batteries for passenger cars that are 10–19 dollars/kWh, that is approx 10% of current lithium battery prices, which are already cheaper than gasoline.
All of this, for people who are paying attention, is one more nail in the fossil fuel coffin.
CATL launches sodium batteries: extremely durable and stable at –40°C
https://evmarket.ro/en/baterii-masini-electrice/catl-baterii-pe-sodiu-stabile-la-40c-58935/Open linkView original on lazysoci.al
5 replies
That's good news, but until i see them being sold, i don't believe it
Yes, the chinese battery industry is crazy intransparent
The "fast charging" is going to be the key for this one. Sodium batteries already exist. They aren't so great at certain tasks simply due to how the chemistry works: The voltage constantly drops as the battery discharges.
That makes a pretty big impact on both its actual maximum capacity, and can greatly reduce its usable capacity. As voltage drops, to get the same amount of actual power out, the current has to go up. Unless the batteries are grossly over-provisioned, the point where you exceed the deliverable amperage from the batteries arrives shockingly fast. To the point where the usable capacity is pretty sad.
Though if (and that's a big if) these batteries can both take and deliver very high current, that point doesn't arrive so quickly. They'll undoubtedly still have quite a bit less capacity than the equivalent Lithium based batteries, because that's how the chemistry works, but depending on their use case, it's not important to have hundreds of miles of capacity in one charge. Especially if they're swappable.
Li-Ion is a huge achilles heel for EVs. Moving past them could be what's needed to actually get competitive.
That process has started on multiple fronts to be fair. We're firmly transitioning away from Li-Ion.