Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd. (CATL) unveiled a lower-density sodium-ion battery yesterday. Sodium-ion batteries are cheaper and may be integrated with lithium-ion cells in a single case.
However, CATL is not just another battery manufacture; it is the world’s most significant battery marker. In addition, the company supplies Tesla with their batteries and has a market share of around 30%. In the first half of 2021, the company sold 34.1-gigawatt hours’ worth of batteries.
As lithium prices continue to skyrocket, many companies are looking at innovative solutions to keep costs low for both consumers and their own production costs. The first generation of the CATL sodium-ion batteries reaches 160 watt-hours/kilogram. They hope to get 200 watt-hours/kilogram in the future iterations of the battery.
However, sodium-ion batteries are still in their infancy, and CATL hopes to be at the forefront of the move to sodium. The CEO of CATL notes that as the batteries technology matures, he hopes it will bring energy storage costs to a new level in the coming years.
