UNDER THE SKIN JESSE CROSSE
THE ACCELERATING march of progress must be giving product planners at car manufacturers a tough time. Car technology has never been in such a state of flux as it is now, and given lithium ion batteries only really became a commercial big deal in the 1990s, the sudden shift towards cars powered by them is extraordinary. But historical perspective as to what comes next is always useful. A close look at the single-cylinder engine of the Benz Patent-Motorwagen of 1885, for instance, reveals a crankshaft and internals exposed to the elements, something that’s unthinkable today.
Given how fast things change in this business, chances are lithium ion batteries – which have drawbacks in terms of sustainability, energy security and cost – will be overtaken by another type of energy storage. Sodium ion batteries (SIBs, also known as Na ion batteries or NIBs) have been on the horizon for a while but they weren’t expected to be mature enough for cars for some time yet.
But early in January, Chinese manufacturer JAC announced it was shipping a small EV from its Yiwei brand equipped with a SIB from Hina Battery. JMEV, another Chinese firm, also announced the rollout of a new EV powered by SIBs from Farasis Energy. The JMEV EV3 (Youth Edition) is a micro-EV city car and has a range of 156 miles.
The downside of SIBs is mainly the lack of energy density, which goes hand in hand with increased weight (too few Wh/kg compared with lithium technologies), but the upsides are substantial. SIBs are benign, containing no lithium or cobalt, and sodium is abundant worldwide. The electrolyte is simpler and the current collectors of the electrodes can be aluminium instead of copper, whi
