How cheap will electric cars become?
Talking about Lithium, it is about 100 times more expensive than sodium. Lithium is $80,000 a tonne, while sodium is $800 a tonne. If we talk about electric cars, then they are so much more expensive because of the battery. More than half the cost of an electric vehicle is the battery itself. Now you can understand how cheap electric vehicles can be if batteries become 100 times cheaper.
Then why isn't everyone using sodium batteries?
Even though sodium is abundantly stocked around the world and is extremely cheap, it does have its drawbacks. Sodium ion batteries can store less energy than lithium. That way, if you need a lot of energy from a lithium-ion battery, you'll need a much heavier battery. At the same time, its life is also less compared to Lithium Ion battery. On the other hand, lithium-ion batteries can be charged and discharged thousands of times. Sony first launched a video camera with a rechargeable lithium battery in 1991. Since then, there has been a lot of innovation in the lithium-ion battery, which has made it much better. Talking about sodium ion batteries, much work still needs to be done in that area.
Therefore sodium ion battery is also a better option.There are many advantages of sodium ion batteries. On the one hand, sodium reserves are huge, on the other hand it is very easy to remove. Because of all this, its price is very high. Furthermore, sodium ion batteries do not require cobalt, which is used in lithium. Let us tell you that mining of cobalt in Central Africa is very difficult, in which there is also a threat to human life.
How much energy is stored in a sodium ion battery?
Even though sodium ion batteries store less energy than lithium, they are still much better than acid batteries. Where there is no need to make things very light, sodium ion batteries can easily be used. Faradion claims that its batteries can store up to 160 watt-hours of energy per kilogram. It is almost on par with lithium batteries with lithium ion phosphate technology. That is, if there is continuous research in sodium ion batteries like lithium ion batteries, then it will also become better. So will sodium ions kill lithium batteries?
Sodium-ion batteries are cheaper, but less effective than lithium-ion batteries. In such a situation, if you want to make things better energy efficient and lighter, then there will always be a need for Lithium Ion batteries. It is possible that in the coming time, lithium batteries will be available in top cars, laptops, mobiles, cameras etc., but sodium ion batteries should replace lithium in all e-vehicles. That is, in the coming days, both lithium and sodium batteries will be used for different purposes and for different segments. Sodium ion batteries can be used to make cars economical, buses, trucks, tractors or more.