CATL's sodium battery is matched with Chery Automobile, which is actually expected: on April 16, at the night of Chery iCAR brand, CATL announced that Sodium-ion battery will be launched on Chery vehicles for the first time. Chery and CATL have jointly released the battery brand ENER-Q. Both parties are committed to creating a full power type covering pure electricity, plug-in and hybrid, and extended range, adapting to the full application scenarios of C-end and B-end, covering all material system battery systems such as sodium battery, M3P Battery, Lithium iron phosphate Battery, ternary lithium battery and other catl battery.

According to relevant materials, ENER-Q focuses on the concept of "high cost-effectiveness" and also has attributes such as "-30 ℃ application", "8-year 800000 km ultra long service life", and "24-hour active monitoring of all operating conditions". In terms of CATL, Sodium-ion battery is "the cost-effective choice to break through the resource bottleneck".

In fact, CATL's Sodium-ion battery products have been released as early as 2021, and have been in a long process of industrialization since then. According to relevant materials, the core parameters of CATL's first generation Sodium-ion battery include:

The energy density of the single cell can reach up to 160Wh/kg;

Charge at room temperature for 15 minutes, with a battery capacity of over 80%;

In a low temperature environment of -20 ° C, it also has a discharge retention rate of over 90%;

The system integration efficiency can reach over 80%;

The thermal stability far exceeds the safety requirements of national strong standards.

Sodium electricity is a trillion dollar market

In 2022, the investment and financing amount of the Sodium-ion battery industry chain will be about 20 billion yuan, while in the first four months of 2023, the total investment and financing amount of the sodium ion battery industry chain will have exceeded 15 billion yuan. As of the end of 2022, the production capacity of sodium batteries is only 2GWh. By the end of 2023, it is expected that the production capacity of sodium batteries will increase to 21GWh, a year-on-year increase of 950%. This is a concrete manifestation of what is known as the first year of sodium electricity in 2023.

Looking ahead to the longer-term future, it is expected that the domestic demand for sodium batteries is expected to reach 32.9 GWh by 2025, with a corresponding market space of approximately 20.37 billion yuan; It is estimated that the domestic demand is expected to reach 137.3GWh in 2027, corresponding to a market space of about 82.4 billion yuan, with a Compound annual growth rate of 141.3%.

It is understood that the reason why sodium batteries are consistently favored by the market is that compared to lithium and lead-acid batteries, sodium batteries achieve a balance between performance and cost.

In terms of cost, the sodium battery uses iron nickel manganese based cathode material, the material cost is about half of the ternary cathode material of lithium battery, and the overall cost is about one third lower than that of Lithium iron phosphate battery; In terms of performance, the Sodium-ion battery is far superior to the lead-acid battery. The energy density of the battery reaches 120-160Wh/kg, 3-5 times that of the lead-acid battery. The battery cycle life is 2000-4000 times, much higher than the 300-500 cycle life of the lead-acid battery.

In addition, sodium batteries also have the characteristics of high safety, good low-temperature performance, fast charging speed, etc., and have a wide range of application scenarios, such as two wheeled vehicles, tricycles, A00, A0, A Alternative fuel vehicle, wind and solar energy storage, portable energy storage, communication base stations, data centers, etc. In the above application scenarios, the cost performance advantages of Sodium-ion battery will promote its continuous replacement of lead acid battery and Lithium iron phosphate battery.

In terms of enterprise layout, at present, more than 30 enterprises at home and abroad are carrying out research and development and industrial layout of Sodium-ion battery, mainly including Faradion in the UK, Tiamat in France, Natron in the United States, CATL in China, BYD, Sunwoda, Penghui Energy, Zhengli New Energy, Hina Battery, sodium innovative energy, Chuanyi Technology, Paineng Technology, China Belgium New Energy, Haisida, Easter, Vico Technology Cubic new energy, etc.

From the perspective of the development of sodium batteries that are about to be installed in electric vehicles, CATL has just taken the lead, and a large number of models equipped with sodium batteries are about to arrive:

In terms of BYD, there have been media reports that BYD's sodium battery will be first installed on the A00 class model Seagull in Q4 2023, with an estimated price of 60000 yuan and a range of 300km. Compared to lithium battery models, BYD has a price advantage of nearly 20000 yuan.

In terms of Sunwoda: On June 9, Wang Mingwang, the founder of Sunwoda, said at the World Power Battery Conference that Sunwoda ultra-low temperature Sodium-ion battery is planned to be mass produced next year, with an energy density of 160Wh/kg, which fully meets the market demand for new energy vehicles such as A00, A0 and A. It is understood that Sunwoda ultra-low temperature Sodium-ion battery is currently developing ultra-low temperature Sodium-ion battery package jointly with four domestic main engine manufacturers and an international main engine manufacturer in the B sample development stage. The package will be loaded and verified in Q4 2023. The first generation of products are planned to be put into production in batches in Q3 2024.

In terms of Great Power: Great Power said at the general meeting of shareholders on May 22 that the number of cycles of Sodium-ion battery of the company's polyanion system has reached more than 6000, the Sodium-ion battery of the layered oxide system has been delivered to the vehicle factory for loading and testing, the sodium battery products without negative electrode materials are in continuous iterative optimization, and the development of positive electrode materials is also in normal progress. Previously, the person in charge of Penghui Energy stated that the product still needs to be tested and verified by Wuling and has not been listed in the announcement catalog.

In terms of Hina Battery: At the beginning of this year, the industry's first Sodium-ion battery test vehicle, "Simao Fairy", jointly built by JAC Simao New Energy and Hina Battery, was publicly unveiled. The Sodium-ion battery bag with cellular battery technology was used for the first time in this model, with a range of 252km, a battery capacity of 25kWh, and a fast charging time of 15-20 minutes. In the future, it will also officially enter commercialization...