On the evening of April 16, CATL announced that its Sodium-ion battery would launch Chery models. It is reported that Qiduan will jointly launch the battery brand "ENER-Q" with CATL. At the same time, the two sides will also cooperate on Sodium-ion battery, Lithium iron phosphate battery, M3P (ternary material battery of phosphate system) and other types of batteries, and the results of cooperation will be applied in mass production models such as iCAR 03 in the future.
Battery is one of the core power of Alternative fuel vehicle, and its importance is beyond doubt. Due to its low cost and good safety performance, Sodium-ion battery has become a competitor in the current lithium resource shortage environment. From the perspective of practitioners, Sodium-ion battery has entered the stage of industrialization and is developing towards large-scale.
In terms of energy density, Sodium-ion battery has begun to approach Lithium iron phosphate battery. CATL said that Sodium-ion battery can generally meet the needs of vehicles with a range of less than 400km. In 2021, when the CATL released a generation of Sodium-ion battery, it was introduced that: the energy density of single battery cell reached 160Wh/kg; Charge in a room temperature environment for 15 minutes, with a battery capacity of over 80%; Having a discharge retention rate of over 90% in a low temperature environment of -20 ° C; The system integration efficiency can reach over 80%.
Battery is one of the core power of Alternative fuel vehicle, and its importance is beyond doubt. Due to its low cost and good safety performance, Sodium-ion battery has become a competitor in the current lithium resource shortage environment. From the perspective of practitioners, Sodium-ion battery has entered the stage of industrialization and is developing towards large-scale.
In terms of energy density, Sodium-ion battery has begun to approach Lithium iron phosphate battery. CATL said that Sodium-ion battery can generally meet the needs of vehicles with a range of less than 400km. In 2021, when the CATL released a generation of Sodium-ion battery, it was introduced that: the energy density of single battery cell reached 160Wh/kg; Charge in a room temperature environment for 15 minutes, with a battery capacity of over 80%; Having a discharge retention rate of over 90% in a low temperature environment of -20 ° C; The system integration efficiency can reach over 80%.
Many people in the industry believe that the competitiveness of Sodium-ion battery is cost advantage. Compared with lithium batteries, Sodium-ion battery have more sources and lower prices. So, in this situation, if there is any technological breakthrough, what kind of change will it cause?
At present, the difficulty of Sodium-ion battery technology breakthrough is the development of materials and large-scale production. In terms of raw material sources, compared to lithium, sodium has more sources and can be extracted from various minerals in the crust. Moreover, sodium is widely distributed in nature, and if it can be developed and utilized, it can effectively alleviate the shortage of lithium resources. From the perspective of raw materials, sodium has a significant advantage over lithium.
In addition, because the working principle of Sodium-ion battery is very similar to that of lithium ion battery, the research and development cost is also relatively low. Only the positive and negative poles need to be replaced. In the core components such as diaphragm and electrolyte, Sodium-ion battery can be common with lithium ion battery. Secondly, the manufacturing process of Sodium-ion battery is relatively simple. Compared with lithium ion batteries, Sodium-ion battery do not need high-temperature calcination, and do not need complex processing of positive and negative electrode materials. In addition, Sodium-ion battery has more convenient operation process in production. In production process, technical means and equipment can be used to improve product quality. Therefore, Sodium-ion battery has great advantages over lithium ion battery in large-scale production.
On the other hand, the safety of lithium batteries is not high, and the stability of sodium ion can complement that of lithium batteries. Even if Sodium-ion battery are used to separate lithium batteries, their safety can also be effectively improved. This property is very suitable for use in the energy storage industry. From the current point of view, Sodium-ion battery is more suitable for an A00 Neighborhood Electric Vehicle. And if partial industrialization can be achieved, it can replace lead-acid batteries and occupy some of the electric bicycle market.
In addition, for the CATL, Sodium-ion battery has another very obvious advantage, that is, low temperature performance. At present, the working temperature of mainstream lithium ion batteries is -20 ℃ to 55 ℃, while Sodium-ion battery can be used in the environment of -40 ℃ to 80 ℃. In addition, fast charging is also a major advantage of Sodium-ion battery. CATL said that these characteristics of Sodium-ion battery can be compatible and complementary with lithium ion battery.
In the context of "carbon neutrality", the new energy industry has entered a multi-level, diversified, and diversified development stage, and the market's requirements for batteries are also increasing. At the same time, the global research and development of Sodium-ion battery is also accelerating, which will open up a new way for the industrialization of Sodium-ion battery.
In fact, the industry also has its own views on the future application prospects of Sodium-ion battery. In some people's opinion, Sodium-ion battery may become a good supplement. Because the price of lithium battery raw materials has risen crazily in the past due to multiple factors such as market game and rising raw materials, the cost of Sodium-ion battery is far lower than the current cost of lithium battery, so once these problems can be solved, the future application prospect of Sodium-ion battery will be broader.
However, in the past two months, the price of lithium has started to "dive". According to relevant department data disclosed by the National Development and Reform Commission, so far, the price of Lithium carbonate has dropped from 568000 yuan/ton at the peak to 196000 yuan/ton, a decline of 65.5%. The rapid development of sodium batteries is mainly due to their low cost. When the price of lithium exceeds 200000 per ton, Sodium-ion battery still has a certain price advantage. When the price of lithium reaches 100000 to 150000 yuan per ton or even lower, lithium-ion batteries with higher energy density are undoubtedly "more fragrant". Once the price of lithium drops, the development of sodium batteries will inevitably be affected.
To promote sodium batteries to the market, there are still a series of issues that need to be addressed. Compared to lithium ions, sodium ions have a much larger volume and require much higher structural and dynamic properties, which is also one of the main factors restricting their commercialization. Therefore, Sodium-ion battery still has some problems, such as low energy density, low temperature, short cycle time, and low charging and discharging rate. Only by solving these problems, Sodium-ion battery will hopefully break with lithium ion battery.
At present, the Sodium-ion battery industry chain is still in the initial stage, and the upstream materials and equipment are still in the initial stage of development. They have not yet formed a complete set of industrial chain to support the large-scale mass production of Sodium-ion battery. However, with the gradual maturity of the Sodium-ion battery market and the layout of various manufacturers, the pattern of the entire industry is gradually taking shape.
