Next best electric car battery is here

There’s no shortage of excitement for electric vehicle battery startups or multibillion dollar investments in the
industry, as companies, backers and scientists look for the winning play. China, though, is moving on to the next leg in the race — one that isn’t dependent on a big, bold breakthrough — with sodium-ion batteries. Done right, this technology could lead to widespread adoption in a market largely dependent on subsidies and where EV sales are still a fraction of all cars.
China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co, or CATL, the world’s largest battery manufacturer, unveiled its latest product in July — a sodium-ion battery. The following month, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it would drive the
development, standardisation and commercialisation of this type of power-pack, providing a cheaper, faster-charging and safe alternative to the current crop on offer, which continue to be plagued by a host of problems, not least, faulty units catching fire.
Sodium-ion batteries aren’t a new development. They were being researched in the 1970s, but interest was quickly overtaken by a newer, fancier, more promising variety — the lithium-ion battery. Their widespread use meant the sodium-based ones didn’t have many takers and any ongoing development took a back seat.
Now, decades on, the challenges with lithium-ion batteries are becoming apparent. Carmakers and battery manufacturers are focused on bringing down costs — a perennial obstacle. And while lithium-ion batteries have been one of the greatest inventions in power storage, they are increasingly coming up against issues including the cost and availability of materials, and safety. There’s a constant tug-of-war between stable chemistry, so the battery doesn’t combust. Clear solutions have largely confounded scientists, and what is available isn’t good enough to make lithium-ion scalable and commercially viable for electric vehicles.
The sodium-based batteries aren’t going to take electric cars any further than lithium can. Not anytime soon, at least. However, the materials needed to make them are widely available. The content of sodium in earth reserves is around 2.5% to 3%, or 300 times more than lithium and is more evenly distributed, according to Jefferies Group LLC analysts. That means it has a major cost advantage: These power packs could cost almost 30% to 50% less than the cheapest electric car battery options currently available.
In addition, the price of sodium is less sensitive to market gyrations compared with lithium, increasingly a sentiment gauge for the world’s green ambitions.

—Bloomberg