Pune-based company KPIT has been working quietly for six years on sodium-ion battery technology to replace lithium-ion in certain segments of the auto market.
- Executives in the company say they have started scouting for partners to manufacture the battery based on their technology in India, which could take 12-15 months after the agreement is signed.
Sodium-ion battery Vs. Lithium-ion battery
- Sodium-ion batteries is seen as an alternative or complementary technology to the more expensive lithium ion-powered batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries still rule the world for electric vehicles with large capacities already set up across the world. But sodium-ion has some inherent advantages :
- Sodium is a thousand times more abundant across the world than lithium and extraction costs are extremely low. In contrast, lithium availability is limited to a few countries, which is why prices have risen seven-fold since 2021.
- A sodium-ion battery uses aluminium whereas a lithium-ion one uses copper, which is three or four times more expensive.
- Also, sodium-ion is a safer alternative, and can be transported at zero volt, whereas lithium-ion batteries have to be stored with a minimum charge at all times, raising the chances of fire hazards.
- All the above factors make a sodium-ion battery 30-40 per cent cheaper than a lithium-ion battery.
- Sodium-ion batteries also charge at a faster rate than lithium-ion variants and have a life cycle that is three times higher. It can charge a battery for a three-wheeler, for instance, up to 80 per cent within seven or eight minutes.
Against these significant advantages is that big drawback:
- Sodium-ion batteries have an average range at least 30 per cent lower than a lithium-ion battery based on the same parameters.
- Many experts say the differential could rise to over 50 per cent with lithium batteries seeing huge range improvement.
