Are cheaper EV batteries on the way? How sodium batteries could leapfrog solid-state tech

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A leading Chinese battery scientist has urged greater research into lithium alternatives for batteries, particularly sodium, to lower China’s dependence on rare, imported and costly metals.

Though Chen Liquan, was speaking in regards to China, his sentiment should reverberate in Australia and the world as the Iran war exposes our reliance on imported essentials.

Professor Chen received the Highest Science and Technology Award, sometimes called “China’s Nobel Prize”, from president Xi Jinping on 8 July.

Chen specifically addressed the automotive industry at the ceremony, highlighting the need to insulate themselves from overseas supply shocks.

Three quarters of China’s lithium is imported, a significant vulnerability for its car industry as it flourishes at home and abroad. Despite this, alternatives to lithium-ion batteries have been slow in coming. Sodium-ion batteries have surged ahead of solid-state batteries which, alongside flying cars, have been ‘around the corner’ for years.

“Solid-state” refers to replacing the batteries’ liquid electrolyte with a solid like ceramic, enabling smaller and less flammable batteries.

Though Toyota and Nissan believe theirs will be ready by 2028, International Energy Agency analyst Teo Lombardo, speaking to Yale Environment 360, believes 2030 is more realistic, and that solid-state batteries will remain expensive and relatively niche.

Battery juggernaut CATL, supplier of approximately a third of the world’s EV batteries, appears to have heeded the professor’s call, announcing in late June that its sodium-ion batteries were nearing price parity with its lithium-ion mainstays. 

Though Changan – owners of Deepal who, in joint venture with Mazda, develops the latter’s 6e sedan and CX-6e medium SUV – hopes to bring sodium-battery-powered cars to market this year, their first consumer application could well be trucks. Car News China reports the new batteries retain at least 90 percent of their range at -20°C; this is 80 percent at best for lithium batteries, a boon for truckies in China’s bitingly cold north.

Sodium atoms are twice as big and three times heavier than lithium atoms, requiring sodium-ion batteries to be bigger and heavier than lithium-ion ones to deliver the same range. But as sodium is much cheaper and easier to source than lithium, applications where size and weight are less of a concern, such as stationary storage, are very promising.

Changan is betting some customers will accept sodium batteries’ extra weight in exchange for cold-weather performance and, in time, lower prices.