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

People are over excited about sodium-ion batteries. They are at least years away from price parity. The super-low numbers floating around are absolute fantasy until production is in the tens of gigawatt hours at least. Their real value is being a hedge on lithium prices. If large battery manufacturer can trivially reconfigure their lines to make sodium-ion batteries, that will be a giant check on large lithium price spikes.

>CATL has announced battery pricing at the cell level in volume at $19/kWh.

Sounds price competitive already?

Not until they actually make them "in volume". They could be ramping up volumes for years and years until they hit that price. When they start producing them, I would bet anything the initial run will not be $19/kWh.

Fair enough, I think that price is a while in the future but from another article:

>In the meantime, CATL’s rival BYD said that its sodium-ion batteries have made progress in reducing cost and are already on track to be on par with lithium iron phosphate battery cost next year and even 70% less in the long run. The Chinese battery maker broke ground on a 30 GWh sodium-ion battery factory earlier this year.