According to the latest  opinion collection of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Announcement on Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products (the 372nd batch), two of the first batch of new energy vehicles equipped with sodium batteries appeared in the product announcement catalogue, respectively from Chery New Energy Vehicles Co., Ltd. and CATL - Chery QQ ice cream and Jiangling Motors and Funeng Technology's joint cooperation model - Yichi Yutu.  

The product announcement can be understood as the production license of the vehicle, and only by registering the announcement can the relevant model be approved for production in the future. These two first models with sodium batteries are expected to enter the market in the third quarter and officially launch into market.  

According to the information on the website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the A00 class pure electric car announced by Chery New Energy has a maximum speed of 100 kilometers per hour, and the Sodium-ion battery is from the CATL. The publicly announced model of Jiangling New Energy is an A0 level pure electric sedan, belonging to the Yichi brand. The maximum speed of this model is also 100 kilometers per hour, and the Sodium-ion battery is from Funeng Technology.

 

A00 level and A0 level are methods of dividing vehicle models based on vehicle wheelbase, also known as micro cars and small cars.

 

Hua'an Securities quoted the research results of Zhongke Haina team, which showed that the cost of industrialized sodium battery materials could be reduced by 30% -40% compared with Lithium iron phosphate battery. Especially in the context of high cost of lithium materials, its cost advantage was further highlighted.

It can be predicted that a large number of new energy vehicles will be equipped with Sodium-ion battery in the future. Compared with lithium batteries, the price of such batteries will be at least one third cheaper, or even more than half cheaper.

 

Of course, compared with the current mainstream lithium phosphate battery, the energy density of Sodium-ion battery is not high, about 200 watt hours per kilogram, but it is much stronger in other aspects. The charging speed of sodium ion is the fastest among all batteries at present, and it only takes about 15 minutes from 0 to 80%. In addition, the power locking capacity of Sodium-ion battery is still as high as 90% at minus 20 degrees.

 

2023 will be the "first year" of Sodium-ion battery. Not only will the technical problems of batteries be gradually solved, but commercial mass production will also enter a new stage.

First, the actual mass production capacity of battery manufacturers for Sodium-ion battery is being formed. CATL, BYD, Zhongke Haina, Huayang Co., Ltd., Penghui Energy, Dofluoro, Funeng Technology, Xinwangda, and Meilian New Material have publicly announced that the mass production capacity of Sodium-ion battery will be formed as soon as 2023.

CATL released the first generation of Sodium-ion battery in 2021, and the energy density at that time was 160Wh/kg. At present, CATL sodium battery can generally meet the needs of vehicles with a range of less than 400km. Its latest AB battery system integration technology realizes the mixing and matching of sodium and lithium, complements each other's advantages, improves the energy density of the battery system, and makes Sodium-ion battery expected to expand to 500km endurance vehicles. This endurance model will target 65% of the market and has broad application prospects. According to the schedule of the CATL, the mass production of Sodium-ion battery will be realized in 2023. In April this year, the company announced that its Sodium-ion battery would be the first Chery model. At the same time, CATL will jointly launch the battery brand "ENER-Q" with Chery.

 

On March 14, Chuanyi Technology said on the interactive platform that the company's Sodium-ion battery project was progressing smoothly. All the 4.5GWh mass production equipment in Phase I of the project had been installed in the factory, and the positive pole, negative pole, cell Technology roadmap and production process had been successfully verified. The company's Sodium-ion battery could be used in many fields such as A00 class cars, two wheeled vehicles and energy storage.

 

On March 10, Dofluoro said on the investor interaction platform that the company's Sodium-ion battery products have been tested in many car factories, and the company has the first generation of layered oxide sodium electricity products in 2022, and will launch the second generation of layered oxide sodium electricity products and the first generation of polyanion sodium electricity products in 2023.

On February 28th, Funeng Technology announced that the company had received the "EV3 sodium battery appointment letter" from Jiangxi Jiangling Group's new energy vehicles. The fixed-point letter shows that Jiangling Group will purchase Sodium-ion battery package assembly from the company and require the company to start mass production before June 30, 2023.

At the general meeting of shareholders on May 22, GP Energy said 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, it was rumored that the product had been installed on the national brand Wuling Baojun Kiwi. 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.

Many enterprises have released the latest progress in mass production of Sodium-ion battery, and Sodium-ion battery are knocking on the door of industrialization.