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Chinese manufacturers are very interested in sodium batteries (i.e. without lithium) for their electric cars. BYD, Tesla’s biggest competitor, has taken a step forward by building a huge factory to produce these new types of batteries. Let’s expand.
BYD Seagull
The hype about sodium batteries continues in China. Just a few days after the start of production of the first electric car equipped with these lithium-free batteries, BYD, Tesla’s biggest competitor (which even overtook him in sales figures at the end of 2023), has just started setting up its production facility.
It was the local administration that announced it on WeChat, China’s flagship application, before it was acquired by Electr. And it’s happening quickly, because the agreement between FinDreams, BYD’s battery-specializing company, and Huaihai, a local manufacturer of electric three-wheelers, was concluded in November 2023, just under two months ago.
High hopes
As a reminder, this factory required a whopping investment of 10 billion yuan, or about 1.3 billion euros. The expected production capacity is 30 GWh per year, which is equivalent to 10 million 30 kWh batteries! Batteries that could end up in the small BYD Seagull, which will also arrive in France at the end of 2024.
The laying of the foundation stone // Source: Xuzhou Province
Further evidence of the interest of Chinese manufacturers in these new types of batteries. There are several investments, sometimes from the largest in the industry, such as CATL. Another factory run by the start-up Zoolnasm with an annual production capacity of 20 GWh is also under construction.
Real opportunities?
A quick reminder about sodium batteries. The main advantage of the latter is that they do not contain lithium, cobalt or manganese and are therefore much easier and more economical to manufacture than traditional lithium batteries. The absence of these materials, whose extraction can be problematic from an environmental and human perspective, highlights the “clean” side of electric cars.
BYD Seagull
However, not everything is perfect: the energy density of sodium batteries is not as good as that of their lithium counterparts, and the charging performance also lags behind. Arguments that lead several experts to say that this technology should remain a minority in the overall mix, but there are already very concrete applications.
We talked about the BYD Seagull above, and small electric cars could well get sodium batteries: they don’t need long range or express charging, but acquisition costs are crucial for these entry-level models.
The sodium cell from Northvolt // Source: Northvolt
Stationary storage could also be an interesting sales market; The Swedish company Northvolt is working on this and recently presented a first cell with promising properties.
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