The Chinese giant CATL has just announced that sodium batteries, devoid of lithium and cobalt, will arrive on electric cars from 2025. Their advantage is their price, because they are more affordable than batteries incorporating lithium.
Batteries are the heart of an electric car. They also represent a large part of the price of electric cars. For example, the battery of an electric Renault Mégane E-Tech is equivalent to around 40% of the total value of the car. But this is changing, particularly with the arrival of LFP (lithium-iron-phosphate) chemistry, without cobalt, which allows costs to be brought down.
But another small revolution is brewing behind the scenes: the arrival of sodium batteries, completely devoid of lithium and cobalt. Their price is their main advantage, since sodium is much less expensive to produce and natural resources are even more accessible and abundant.
An arrival from 2025
Chinese media China Daily relays the words of the boss of CATL, the largest manufacturer of batteries for electric cars in the world. Zeng Yuqun, the founder of CATL, confirmed that the company is developing sodium batteries, with their launch expected next year, in 2025.
In addition to reduced cost, the lifespan of sodium batteries could be greater, as could their resistance to low temperatures. Enough to increase the range of electric cars in winter. On the other hand, their energy density is lower than lithium batteries, which should result in slightly lower autonomy.
The boss of CATL is however confident in his technology, since on a scale of 1 to 10, the man specifies that sodium batteries are at 7, in terms of maturity. We should therefore see them arriving next year in the first electric cars. The targeted models will surely be compact and city cars, where autonomy is less important than price. Rumors announced that the BYD Seagull would be equipped with it, but this has not yet been verified.
