- Yadea is advancing with a series of two -wheeled vehicles with sodium ions
- Sodium will play a key role in broader battery exchange systems
- The country is already pressing the mass production of technology
The presence of sodium in batteries is nothing new, since the first documented use of IT dates back to the 1960s, when Ford Motor Company considered using them for very early EV.
But last year, the Chinese car manufacturer Jac (a company joint with Volkswagen in China) produced the first car production car of the world’s sodium ion in the Hua Xianzi (it is translated approximately as ‘Fair Fairy’), which uses a small 25 kWh sodium ion battery that can travel up to 155 miles with a single load.
Although it is not exactly a worldwide success in sales, technology has found a place among the amendment of China’s microcarrachs and, perhaps more importantly, its unbridled demand for diminutive two -wheeled scooters.
Somewhere like Shenzhen, a megacious city of about 17.8 million people, the humble scooter is one of the most popular forms of transport, with more than 55 million sold only in 2023, and Yadea is among the most popular brands.
The world leader in two -wheeled electric vehicles has published three electric scooters with sodium ions to date, according to the BBC, with plans in process to offer much more.
These batteries are built similar to their lithium ion counterparts, but transfer sodium ions between electrodes during loading and unloading, instead of other rare earth materials.
Currently, lead-acid batteries continue to dominate the panorama of electric scooters, since technology is cheap and produced on a mass scale, but the demand for sodium ion units is gradually increasing.
By 2030, 15% of China’s electric scooters will be fed by them, compared to 0.04% in 2023, according to an analysis of the Shenzhen headquarters -based research institute, which evaluates the Chinese batteries industry.
Analysis: sodium ions reaches far beyond transportation
The two -wheeled electrical manufacturer YADEA is also building one of the most robust electric scooter load networks in China, with plans to install more than 1,000 fast -charged pillars that have been specifically designed for sodium ion batteries this year in Hangzhou, which would allow the commoners to find a station every 2 km (1.2 miles).
It is also advancing with a massive battery exchange program in Shenzen, with an objective of 20,000 exchange stations this year, which allow passengers to replace a battery spent by a completely loaded unit in around 30 seconds. This number will grow to 50,000 by 2027.
At this time, sodium ion batteries are still very rising, since the price and demand of lithium ion units have decreased since its maximum pandemic of all time.
A relatively low energy density (some sodium ion batteries such as 30% less dense energy than lithium ion counterparts) has also postponed to the main automotive players, all of which constantly seek the lighter and densest options in the market.
But China’s vision for salty batteries goes far beyond transport, and the BBC reports that it is already on the way to storage energy storage solutions based on mass scale, which help balance the network and store excess energy from renewable sources when they are not in use, all without competing with the automotive industry and its voracious appetite for lithium.
