In the future, sodium-ion trams will be cheaper than lithium batteries by half: two-wheeled electric vehicles will be the first to be used
Recently, sodium-ion batteries have become a hot spot in the market. The stock prices of companies related to it have soared, and various good news have been announced. For example, sodium-ion batteries have been mass-produced and even loaded into cars. The rumors have been refuted, saying that it has not yet been mass-produced.
An important advantage of sodium-ion batteries attracting the new energy industry is low cost, because this battery no longer uses expensive metal lithium, but metal sodium. After all, the price of lithium carbonate has exceeded 500,000 yuan/ton in the past two years , China is heavily dependent on lithium ore imports, making electric vehicle manufacturers miserable, and ridiculing that they are working for battery companies.
How much could the cost of sodium-ion batteries be reduced? Since there is no actual mass production yet, the real cost is still uncertain.Researchers from Soochow Securities previously published a report and made calculations, saying that the cost of sodium-ion batteries is currently 0.8 to 0.9 yuan/Wh, and it is expected to drop to 0.5 yuan/Wh in the long run.
At a price of 500,000 yuan/ton of lithium carbonate, even the cost of a lower-cost lithium iron phosphate battery is about 1 yuan/Wh.This means that the cost of sodium-ion batteries can be half that of lithium batteries, which is expected to further reduce the price of electric vehicles.
However, it is still in the investment period of sodium-ion batteries. The current production cost is actually higher than that of lithium batteries, and one of the disadvantages of sodium-ion batteries is the low energy density. The index announced by Ningde Times is about 140-160Wh/kg. It is much lower than the 180Wh/kg density of lithium iron carbonate battery.
This also led to the limited use scenarios of sodium-ion batteries in the early stage.The first application may be two-wheeled electric vehicles. This market does not require so much battery capacity.
In the future, sodium-ion batteries will be used first in energy storage and A00-class electric vehicles. It is impossible to completely replace lithium batteries. It is more likely that the two will coexist. Lithium batteries are still the first choice for mid-to-high-end electric vehicles.