00:00Chinese electric cars are making headlines again because some of them are running on batteries made of salt.
00:07Well, that's what's being reported at least.
00:10Until now, lithium has been the key ingredient in e-car batteries, but it's difficult and expensive to obtain.
00:18But salt, a.k.a. sodium, isn't.
00:21I really can see these headlines in front of me.
00:24Are sodium ion batteries the lithium killer?
00:28Does China's head start mean they'll rule the market again?
00:31Or do companies in Europe stand a chance of competing?
00:34Welcome to this episode of Transforming Business.
00:43Lithium is an ultralight element that's become an integral part of battery technology.
00:48But it's relatively difficult and expensive to procure.
00:51Extraction methods vary depending on where it comes from.
00:55The three biggest producers are Australia, Chile and China.
00:59Until now, China is by far the largest battery producer.
01:03We're going to need more battery capacity in the next few decades, not just for our smartphones, laptops and electric cars, but to store wind and solar energy.
01:13The market will probably not only double until 2030.
01:18It's probably times five more like this.
01:22Martin Oschatz is a professor for the chemistry of energy materials at the University of Jena, Germany.
01:28Relying on lithium alone won't cut it.
01:31The world will need every option available, and that's where sodium ion batteries come into the picture.
01:37So let's take a look at that element.
01:39Beneath the Earth's crust, sodium is abundant, making up around 2.3 percent.
01:45It might not sound like much, but that's over 1,000 times more the amount of lithium found under the Earth's crust.
01:53Not only is it more readily available, but it's also cheaper.
01:58In early 2024, sodium carbonate was valued at approximately $290 per metric ton.
02:06Battery grade lithium carbonate was more than $13,000 per metric ton.
02:13And lithium batteries need precious materials like cobalt and nickel to work.
02:18But sodium doesn't. It's found everywhere.
02:21It's simply salt and not limited to a specific region.
02:29The world's largest battery manufacturer, Chinese CATL, already went big on sodium ion technology in 2021.
02:39Just two years later, it was supplying Chinese carmaker Sherry with salt batteries.
02:45And recently, this e-car type from JAC Group's Yiwei was in the spotlight.
02:52Reports say that some of the cars from this model are powered by a sodium battery.
02:58This probably means that in some Chinese cities, tiny salt-powered e-cars are already in use,
03:04though we weren't able to find any further information or figures on how many of them.
03:13At the moment, I think China is leading the race. One should never give up.
03:17But we have this technology sooner or later with us also, I think.
03:21But now it's in China and we have to close the gap.
03:24But what does that mean for the big lithium producers?
03:27Chile, Bolivia and Argentina, they constitute what's known as a lithium triangle
03:32because together they own about 53 percent of lithium reserves worldwide.
03:37Does the invention of sodium batteries threaten their turf?
03:41We tend to compare lithium ion and sodium ion technology as competitors.
03:47And I really can see these headlines in front of me.
03:51Are sodium ion batteries the lithium killer?
03:54This is Alexander Buchel. He's a battery cell development manager at Ultras.
03:59He and William work for a Swedish sodium ion battery startup,
04:04located about an hour's drive from Stockholm in a city called Uppsala.
04:09He tells us that his entry into the sodium ion battery sector started by accident during his postdoc.
04:17We were producing so much blue powder that there was blue all over the walls and all over the fume hoods
04:22and the university was getting upset at us.
04:25Here's how sodium ion batteries are made.
04:28First, this bright blue powder is made into a slurry and then coated onto aluminum foil.
04:35It's dried in a big machine like this one and then compressed on a machine like this.
04:41The excess is trimmed away with a laser cutter.
04:44All these black squares are stacked together before going into a hermetically sealed glove box here
04:52and where electrolytes are added under a controlled environment.
04:57Then it's just a matter of testing the battery.
05:00One of the arguments for sodium ion batteries is that they can cycle more,
05:05which means they can be used and recharged and used again more than lithium ion batteries.
05:11Talking about lifetime here, we have to of course also talk about in what applications are they being used.
05:17For example, portable electronics.
05:20A person is very happy if you can charge and discharge your mobile phone for more than a thousand times
05:26without losing a lot of capacity.
05:28And what about cars?
05:29Remember the headline that Chinese e-cars are powered by sodium ion batteries?
05:33Can't the technology be scaled up?
05:36With lithium ion batteries, we have a great product market fit for especially electric vehicles.
05:42And this is also where we see that sodium ion batteries will have a hard time,
05:47mainly because there is an inherently lower energy density to the technology.
05:52This is Andreas Haas from the Swedish firm Northvolt,
05:56a big lithium ion battery producer in Europe.
05:59It works with Altris in sodium ion battery development and production
06:03and wants to reach full-scale production by the end of the decade.
06:07The hardest part about creating a new battery technology
06:10is actually not making one good battery in a laboratory.
06:13It's to produce a million of those, including the supply chain of it,
06:17including the gigafactors that you need to build.
06:19But why is China so far ahead?
06:22Experts say that while Europe has been researching sodium ion batteries for longer,
06:26China actually commercialized them earlier and got a head start of at least three or four years.
06:32One of the main hurdles they face is weight.
06:35They tend to be heavier than lithium ion batteries.
06:39The physical dimensions will be a little bit larger.
06:43And so these are the main drawbacks of sodium versus lithium.
06:48It's the weight, it's the volume.
06:50The energy density is therefore a little bit lower compared to lithium.
06:55William estimates that they're about half as powerful as their lithium counterparts
06:59in terms of generating power.
07:01This isn't a problem for small cars like those now used in China.
07:04But for bigger EVs meant to drive longer distances,
07:07larger and heavier batteries are needed.
07:11With the sodium ion batteries, we think that first in the energy storage system market,
07:16where we have 20-foot containers that are basically just being placed next to renewable energy assets and substations.
07:23We're talking about stationary energy storage, battery-driven industrial equipment,
07:29such as warehouse machinery, forklifts, and so on.
07:33And while the production of sodium ion batteries is slowly getting underway,
07:37the market for lithium ion batteries is booming.
07:41One estimate puts the market value of sodium ion batteries at $920 million by 2030.
07:49By comparison, lithium ion batteries' market value is expected to grow to over $270 billion.
07:57We will probably, at least in the next 20 years, not have the situation that so many sodium ion batteries are made
08:03that lithium ion battery production is decreasing.
08:06Maybe they are closing the gap, but the decline in lithium ion battery production at the moment is not on the horizon, in my opinion.
08:13The two technologies are similar in many ways, something battery makers have realized.
08:19Many lithium battery producers have started investing in sodium.
08:25I believe that rather than viewing lithium ion and sodium ion as competitors,
08:31it would be more accurate to see them as a part of a larger landscape in energy storage solutions.
08:39So what does China's head start mean for other companies trying to enter the market?
08:43Can they compete?
08:45The fact is that China is a forerunner in the production of electric vehicles and car batteries.
08:50And it's already begun commercializing sodium ion batteries.
08:55Sodium is cheaper and available in larger quantities than lithium.
08:59But sodium ion batteries are bigger and heavier.
09:02European companies are working on a viable product.
09:06But experts say that China is at least three to four years ahead.
09:11We will probably know in a few decades how successful they were.
09:14And whether sodium ion batteries will dominate the market or be used alongside lithium ones.
09:20What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
09:29For more UN videos visit www.un.org
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