[RE-wrenches] Sodium Ion vs Lithium Article

[Jay]

Hi Christopher 

I ve been following SIB for quite a while. And while it’s still early days the progress has been staggering. 

According to CATL SIB are in production at roughly $20 kWh with expected $10 in less than a year. 
They are producing cars in China with SIB. BYD is also producing them. 

Current energy density is about 175 and is going up. 
Cycle life is 10-20,000
C rates are much higher than LFP which is one reason they are being used in cars 
Temperature range is dramatically higher than LFP meaning no HVAC is needed in almost all applications 
Efficiency seems to be a bit lower than LFP but the lack of hvac means you do get some of that back. There is a company in the US that is building BESS without hvac 
They are significantly safer in regards to fires and also even more environmentally friendly 

One data point is that CATL has 120,000 engineers, Tesla has 80,000 total employees 

We are witnessing a new generation of battery tech, that will help change the cost dynamics of cars and BESS 






> On Dec 3, 2025, at 9:52 AM, Christopher Warfel via RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
> 
> A person sent me the attached article on Sodium Ion batteries as a competitor to Lithium.  I thought it might be of interest to the WRENCHES folks.   Chris
> 
> --
> Christopher Warfel, PE
> ENTECH Engineering, Inc.
> PO Box 871, Block Island, RI 02807
> (401) 447-5773
> <Sodium v Lithium batteries.pdf>
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