The first electric cars equipped with sodium battery

Sodium batteries are widely used in many fields such as energy storage facilities, portable energy storage, and communication base stations due to their high safety, good low-temperature performance, and fast charging speed, and have also made new developments in the field of electric vehicles. The first electric cars equipped with sodium battery have been officially launched. This article will introduce the latest sodium battery cars, as well as the development of the sodium battery market and the layout of sodium battery manufacturers.

The advent of the first sodium battery cars

On June 15, the first two new electric vehicles equipped with sodium batteries appeared in the product announcement catalog, which means that the industrialization of sodium batteries has taken a substantial step forward—that is, it is the first time to be equipped on a sales model in the market , These two models first equipped with sodium batteries are expected to enter the market in the third quarter and officially start sales.

One is Chery Automobile and CATL’s cooperation model – Chery QQ Ice Cream, which is a battery electric car equipped with sodium batteries produced by CATL. Another sodium battery vehicle announced at the same time was the Yichi Yutu model jointly developed by Jiangling Motors and Farasis Energy, which is equipped with sodium batteries produced by Farasis Energy.

CATL sodium battery development

On April 16, at Chery iCAR brand conference, CATL announced that ITS sodium batteries will be the equipped on Chery models. Chery and CATL also jointly released the battery brand – ENER-Q, and the two sides are committed to creating a full-power type covering pure electricity, plug-in mixing, and extended range, suitable for the full application scenarios of C and B ends, covering all-material battery systems including sodium, M3P, lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium.

According to the relevant materials, ENER-Q focuses on the concept of “high cost performance”, and also has attributes such as “-30℃ application”, “8-year 800,000km ultra-long cycle life”, and “24-hour active monitoring of all working conditions”. CATL evaluates sodium batteries, which are the cost-effective choice to break through the resource bottleneck.

In fact, the sodium battery products of the CATL have been released as early as 2021, and have been in the long process of industrialization since then. According to the relevant materials, the core parameters of the first generation of sodium batteries in the CATL include:

● Cell energy density up to 160Wh/kg;
● The power can reach more than 80% after only charging 15 minutes at room temperature;
● Has more than 90% discharge retention rate even in -20°C low temperature environment;
● System integration efficiency can reach more than 80%.

Farasis Energy sodium battery development

In December 2022, Fu Nengtechnology received a notice from Jiangling Group, agreeing to carry out preliminary research on the early adaptation of sodium batteries for EV3 models, and EV3 models with sodium batteries will be sold in 2023.

On the evening of February 28, Farasis Energy announced that the company had received the “EV3 sodium battery fixed point letter” from Jiangxi Jiangling Group, and Jiangling Group will purchase sodium battery pack assembly from Farasis Energy and require it to start mass production before June 30 this year.

Farasis Energy has transformed part of the ternary battery production capacity of Ganzhou plant into sodium battery production capacity, which has the conditions for mass production. In terms of related product parameters and indicators, the energy density of the sodium ion soft pack power battery has been increased to 155Wh/kg, the cycle life of 100% discharge depth is more than 2000 times, and the capacity retention rate is still more than 90% under the low temperature condition of -20℃, and has passed the national standard safety performance tests.

In addition, in the second generation of sodium battery pilot stage, the energy density increased by more than 10% compared with the first generation, and it is planned to start the pilot stage at the end of 2023 and mass production at the end of 2024.

Future prospect of sodium battery market

According to GGII statistics show that the investment and financing amount of sodium battery industry chain in 2022 is about 20 billion yuan, and in the first four months of 2023, the total investment and financing amount of sodium batteryity industry chain has exceeded 15 billion yuan. By the end of 2022, sodium battery capacity is only 2GWh, and by the end of 2023, sodium battery capacity is expected to increase to 21GWh, an increase of 950%.

This is a concrete embodiment of the year 2023 known as the first year of sodium batteryity. China Research Industry Research Institute forecasts that China’s sodium battery demand is expected to reach 32.9GWh in 2025, corresponding to a market space of about 20.37 billion yuan; It is expected that China’s demand in 2027 is expected to reach 137.3GWh, corresponding to a market space of about 82.4 billion yuan, and its compound annual growth rate is 141.3%.

Reasons for the development of sodium batteryity market

The reason why sodium battery is favored by the market is that sodium batteries strike a balance between performance and cost compared to lithium and lead-acid batteries.

From the cost point of view, the sodium battery uses iron-nickel-manganese based cathode material, the material cost is about half of the lithium ternary cathode material, and the overall cost is about one-third lower than the lithium iron phosphate battery. From the performance point of view, the sodium battery far exceeds the lead-acid battery, the battery energy density reaches 120-160Wh/kg, which is 3-5 times that of the lead-acid battery, and the battery cycle life is 2000-4000 times, far higher than the lead-acid battery cycle life of 300-500 times.

In addition, sodium batteries also have high safety, good low temperature performance, fast charging speed and a wide range of application scenarios, such as two-wheelers, three-wheelers, A00, A0, A-level new energy vehicles, wind energy storage, portable energy storage, communication base stations, data centers and so on. In the above application scenarios, the cost performance advantages of sodium batteries will promote their continued replacement of lead-acid batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries.

Market layout of sodium battery manufacturers

In terms of market layout, more than 30 manufacturers in the world are conducting sodium battery research and development and industrial layout. It mainly includes Faradion Company in British, Tiamat company in France, Natron Company in America, and China’s CATL, BYD, Sunwoda, GreatPower, ZEnergy, HinaBattery, Transimage, Pylon Tech, CBAT, High Star, Eastups, Veken Tech, Lifun Tech and so on.

From the perspective of the progress of sodium battery to be installed in electric vehicles, CATL and Farasis Energy Technology are only playing a starting point, and a large number of models carrying sodium batteries are about to be launched.

BYD
Previous media reports said that BYD’s sodium battery will be in loaded on the A00 class model Seagull in 2023 for the very first time with mileage range of 300KM, and it will sell for 60,000 RMB, which is 20,000 RMB lower than the models of lithium battery.

Sunwoda
Sunwoda is one of the top 10 installed capacity of power battery manufacturers in the world. On June 9,2023, the founder of Sunwoda said at the World Power Battery Conference that Sunwoda ultra-low temperature sodium ion batteries are planned to be mass-produced next year, and their energy density will be 160Wh/kg, fully meeting the market demand for electric vehicles such as A00, A0, and A-level.

At present, Sunwoda ultra-low temperature sodium ion batteries are in the B-sample development stage, with four Chinese OEM and an international OEM joint development of ultra-low temperature sodium ion battery packs. And they will be processing loading verification on the 2023 Q4 , and the first generation of products are planned to be put into mass production in 2024 Q3.

GreatPower
GreatPower said at the shareholders’ meeting on May 22 that the number of sodium ion battery cycles of the company’s polyanion system has reached more than 6,000 times, the sodium ion battery of the layered oxide system has been delivered to the factory for loading and testing, and the sodium battery products without negative electrode materials are continuously iterated and optimized, and the development of positive electrode materials is also under normal progress.

HinaBattery
At the beginning of 2023, the industry’s first sodium battery test car “Sihao Flower Fairy” jointly built by SOL and HinaBattery Sodium was unveiled. The model first applied the cellular battery technology sodium battery pack, with a driving range of 252km, a battery capacity of 25KWh, and a fast charging time of 15 minutes to 20 minutes. It will also be officially commercialized soon.