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Pavel Kotov
Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Corp., better known as JAC, is experimenting with using sodium-ion traction batteries in its electric vehicles. Although such batteries are inferior to traditional ones in terms of characteristics, they turn out to be much cheaper – sodium is many times cheaper than lithium.
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JAC turned to HiNa Battery Technologies Co. for alternative lithium-ion batteries. – It was founded in 2017 and specializes in sodium ion batteries. These batteries offer a shorter range than lithium-ion batteries, but at the same time they have a more modest cost, are less sensitive to temperature changes, and most importantly, they are non-flammable.
Today, at an industry conference in China’s Jiangsu province, two manufacturers presented a demonstration electric vehicle with a HiNa sodium-ion battery – the battery provides the car with a range of 250 km.
The development of sodium-ion batteries was spurred on by high lithium prices. So far, the situation is not alleviated even by the fact that, compared with the November maximum, the price of lithium carbonate has now decreased by 30%. Batteries manufactured by HiNa have the same status as lithium-ion batteries – they are subject to certification and regulatory approval. JAC is primarily a commercial vehicle manufacturer and also has a joint venture with Germany’s Volkswagen AG.
