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Sodium-ion batteries have started to appear in cars and home storage

(cleantechnica.com)
160 points xbmcuser | 3 comments | 23 Oct 25 01:36 UTC | HN request time: 0.661s | source
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AnonC ◴[23 Oct 25 04:03 UTC] No.45678061[source]▶
I skimmed through the article. It talks a lot about sodium ion batteries and how major vehicle and transportation companies are getting into making and using these batteries. It also talks about the cost aspect, with sodium ion being cheaper than lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.

However, there is no mention of this technology in consumer devices and gadgets like laptops, smartphones and tablets. I get that the site is about clean technology as a replacement for the currently more polluting technology. But I’m interested to see when these sodium ion batteries will appear in phones and laptops and what difference they may make to the cost, price, weight, performance, safety, longevity, etc.

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1. jostmey ◴[23 Oct 25 04:35 UTC] No.45678196[source]▶
Phone and laptop batteries probably make up a tiny fraction of the battery market. My EV battery is almost 5000 times the size of my iphone.

Sodium batteries, if the technology works, would replace EV batteries and provide support to the electrical grid, and would be purchased at thousands of times the volume of iphone ad laptop batteries

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2. grumbelbart2 ◴[23 Oct 25 05:27 UTC] No.45678428[source]▶
Since their energy density is still lower, it will probably take a while for them to be adapted in EVs.

But their impact on energy storage to stabilize the grid, both technically and in terms of prices, can not be overstated. Cheap, safe storage is the key component missing in Europe for using more renewables. Without that you need to keep gas plants in reserve, should there be a few days without sun and wind.

There were a few such days in December 2024, and their impact onto energy prices is difficult for energy-intense industries. https://energy-charts.info/charts/price_average/chart.htm?l=...

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3. AuryGlenz ◴[23 Oct 25 06:37 UTC] No.45678855[source]▶
I bet we (well, China, at least) will see some lower range but cheaper EVs using sodium batteries pretty much right away. A lot of people would be fine with having something that can only do 100 miles as their daily commute vehicle as long as it was cheap, especially in 2 vehicle families.