Sodium-Ion battery (SIB) also known as NIB (Nacl-Ion battery) or salt batteries have been a long-awaited topic (sea snake)
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China: 1 - country of 200 electric vehicles (EV) makers like BYD (Build Your dream), SAIC
2-locates six of the world’s 10 biggest EV battery makers (CATL, BYD supplies TESLA and BMW,…)
It was therefore “normal” that the first salt battery EV was launched there just a week ago on 23rd Feb 2023.
Despite CATL announcing in Nov 2022 the availability of its first salt battery for Q2 2023, it’s neither a big Chinese EV battery manufacturer nor a big EV maker that opened the bal but smaller players called HINA for the battery and JAC for the car manufacturer.
PROS: 80% charge in 15 minutes, 15 min charge every 250km (say ?) as they can charge up to 4C
Longevity: 5000+ cycles so a unique battery during the life of a product.
Safety: with salt, fire risk is much lower than Li-Ion
Lower price, salt is more abundant than Lithium
CONS: energy density of NIB/SIB/salt batteries is twice as less than that of best 2023 Li-Ion batteries
140Wh/kg versus 300Wh/kg (CATL here above in Nov 2022 announced a 160Wh/kg for Q2 2023). 140Wh/kg energy is over five times that of lead-acid batteries. CATL has announced 200W/kg for its 2nd generation salt battery (no date).
What are the possible uses ?
Specialists say that salt-ion batteries can’t compete with Lithium-ion ones yet, they will be reserved for low power or two-wheel vehicules like bikes. At 200W/kg, they could offer interesting feature for efoils or esurfs including rentals. Haven’t looked at the weight yet.