Salt batteries have arrived: the first electric car with a sodium battery is now a reality

The future of batteries does not only depend on lithium. Chinese company CATL, the world’s largest battery manufacturer, has launched the first mass production of sodium batteries —literally, batteries made with salt— and the first electric car that mounts them, the Changan Nevo AO6, will reach the market this very year. The news marks a turning point for the industry, because sodium is far more abundant and cheaper than lithium.And why does this matter to us? Because lithium, although it works very well, is expensive, hard to extract, and its processing has a huge carbon footprint. In addition, lithium batteries suffer from extreme cold —we’ve all seen how a phone shuts off in winter— and can overheat to the point of catching fire. Sodium batteries, by contrast, hold up better at sub-zero temperatures and are much safer. Their main downside is that they weigh more, but for a car or for storing energy in a home, that extra weight is not a serious problem.The most interesting thing is that this does not stop here. CATL is already working on more powerful generations of these batteries, and experts believe the production cost will keep falling. In the medium term, sodium batteries could make both electric cars and home energy storage cheaper, making the energy transition more accessible to everyone. As one researcher quoted by New Scientist puts it: «We are all underestimating how much this is going to change our lives».— Marta, for intermittent intelligence.