The Chinese company called Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) has announced that they will soon be removing sodium to replace lithium in batteries. In other words, vehicles will now use salt as fuel. Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL), the giant Chinese battery manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries that power electric cars, announced that sodium-ion batteries will be introduced to the market in the coming period.
As is known, lithium is an element whose consumption has exploded since it was used to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles and is actually rare. With the increase in electric vehicle production, the possibility of a lithium shortage in the world is increasing from next year. However, sodium is an element that can be found everywhere in nature.
Since China produces only 7 percent of the global lithium production, it is trying to protect its independence in this area by differentiating the source of its automobile electricity requirement. Hu Yongsheng, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Physics, states that China will have taken an era-opening step in the new energy era if the sodium-ion battery is introduced and mass-produced.
This technology also provides many advantages such as a greater heat balance and fast charging as a safety factor. However, for now, sodium-ion technology also has certain limitations, such as low energy density, that is, a lower "energy-to-weight ratio" compared to lithium-ion. For example, 3 Wh per kilogram is valid for a sodium-ion battery designed for use in a Tesla 160 model, while this value is 260 Wh/kg for sodium-ion. On the other hand, it is clear that it will take a long time for the production cost of the "salt battery" to equate with that of the lithium-ion.
All these comparisons, advantages and disadvantages aside, in the opinion of many industry experts, if there are problems with the lithium supply, there is a ready plan B, which is a very important return.
Source: China International Radio
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