The first EV with a lithium-free sodium battery hits the road in January
www.engadget.com
JAC Motors, a Volkswagen-backed Chinese automaker, unveiled the first mass-produced EV with a sodium-ion battery through its new Yiwei brand. Although sodium-ion battery tech has a lower density than lithium-ion, its lower costs, simpler and more abundant supplies and superior cold-weather performance could help accelerate mass EV adoption.

The first EV with a lithium-free sodium battery hits the road in January - Sodium-ion batteries have lower density but are cheaper and perform better in cold weather::JAC Motors, a Volkswagen-backed Chinese automaker, unveiled the first mass-produced EV with a sodium-ion battery through its new Yiwei brand. Although sodium-ion battery tech has a lower density than lithium-ion, its lower costs, simpler and more abundant supplies and superior cold-weather performance could help accelerate mass EV adoption.

      • candyman337@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        32·
        1 year ago

        For EVs, these batteries are better for the environment to produce and to dispose of, and if you’re able to replace them every time you go to a recharge station you’ll never have a battery die because it won’t be in your car long enough. The batteries keep rotating until they die and then they get taken out of rotation and disposed of.

        • 9bananas@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          bit of a problem here:

          if batteries are kept in rotation until they die… you’ll most likely experience one dying on you. probably multiple times during your life.

          the rest holds up just…how would you avoid a battery dying on you, if you’re still using the same system? you’re not getting a new battery every time you swap, you get an old battery that’s been sitting in the station recharging.

          it’s gonna die on someone, might as well happen to you…

          • candyman337@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            There are ways to calculate a batteries remaining life, usually you’d have a chip dedicated to tracking all of that. They can tell you a battery’s history, health, estimated charge capacity etc. So if the station detects a batteries life is low or it’s marked as chaged but it’s charged significantly below it’s initial capacity it can be taken out of rotation and inspected and fixed/disposed of if need be.

            Personally I wonder, once we have interchangeable batteries, if it will be more common to have several smaller, shorter life span batteries that add up to a certain range. That way the recharge station only has to change out the batteries with a lower charge, and even if the battery system trips up and you get a borked battery your range would be slightly reduced not completely gone or halved