[HN Gopher] Sodium-ion EV battery breakthrough delivers 11-min c...
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Sodium-ion EV battery breakthrough delivers 11-min charging and 450
km range
Author : breve
Score : 71 points
Date : 2026-03-25 20:19 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (electrek.co)
(TXT) w3m dump (electrek.co)
| Grimblewald wrote:
| BYD / Denza z9 gt claim 10-70% in 5 mins, 97% in 9 mins. With a
| range of ~1000km this seems to crush these results? I don't know
| enough about this space to know if I am missing something here,
| but would love to know because something about this feels more
| exciting than i think i am grasping. anyone know?
| MisterTea wrote:
| I see no charge rate numbers so there is no way to compare.
| however, these sodium batteries are cheaper, do not require
| lithium, and are operable at lower temperatures of -20C/-4F.
| Sounds like a bit of a win and opens the door for battery
| options in cars.
| _aavaa_ wrote:
| And the fire safety risks are significantly reduced (thermal
| runaway is much harder). They can also be transported and
| stored completely discharged, something not done with lithium
| ion batteries because of it degrades them much more than
| regular usage.
| adrian_b wrote:
| The sodium-ion batteries are said to work satisfactorily down
| to -40 Celsius = -40 Fahrenheit.
|
| -20 Celsius just happens to be a temperature for which a
| retention ratio was specified in the parent article, and not
| the limit of the operation range.
| cbg0 wrote:
| The range claims depend on the size of the battery pack. The
| Denza has a larger pack than what is quoted in the article.
| Also, the Chinese CLTC range ratings are overly optimistic with
| 1000km CLTC being ~820km WLTP or ~700km EPA.
| IneffablePigeon wrote:
| This article is about a sodium-ion battery which is a different
| chemistry to the one BYD claimed those results on (that was
| LFP).
|
| Sodium-ion is exciting because it has the potential to have
| less degradation over time, much less sensitivity to cold and
| less reliance on rare earth metals. Could also end up
| significantly cheaper. However it has struggled to reach the
| same energy densities and so hasn't been practical thus far.
|
| This seems like a big step towards it being a practical
| technology choice for certain models, if it bears out.
| hunterpayne wrote:
| "Sodium-ion is exciting because..."
|
| Well it is exciting, but not for the reasons you think. More
| like a Michael Bay movie exciting...there is nothing
| practical about this design. Most of the cost will be safety
| systems designed to prevent the battery from being exciting
| and even then a crash will likely set them off. Pure Na-ion
| probably isn't viable and certainly isn't viable in a car.
| Maybe mixing in some Na into the Li-ion to stretch the small
| amount of Lithium but even then you are significantly
| increasing the volatility of the battery.
|
| This isn't a practical step, its an act of desperation from
| people who don't want to admit that large scale
| electrification is a dumb idea. We electrified everything
| that made sense to electrify a half century ago.
| mbesto wrote:
| > With a range of ~1000km this seems to crush these results
|
| The 1000km range likely has more to do with the efficiency of
| the drivetrain and the aerodynamics of the car more than the
| battery tech. kWh is an absolute value that is fungible and the
| Denza has a 122.5 kWh battery pack, which means its getting
| 5mi/kWh. For perspective my Rivian R1S gets ~350 miles on a 135
| kWh pack which is about 2.5mi/kWh (so about half that)
|
| The only part of the battery tech that could affect range is
| the weight. Sodium batteries are typically much heavier than
| Li-on. I believe the Denza uses LFP, which means it's likely
| somewhere else on the car that they're gaining improvement in
| the range - not from the battery tech. That being said, the
| battery tech definitely affects the charge/discharge rates.
| readthenotes1 wrote:
| Another better battery bulletin
| WarmWash wrote:
| I don't know what chemistry exactly these cells are using, but in
| sodium-ion batteries, prussian blue analogs as they are called
| are common anode materials. Overcharging these cells can lead to
| a release of hydrogen cyanide gas, notoriously known as Zyklon B.
|
| It has damped my enthusiasm for perusing it as a potential future
| home energy storage solution.
| cyberax wrote:
| Just wait until you find out about hydrogen sulfide from
| overcharged car batteries.
|
| Also, I think HCN can be scrubbed by adding a special
| absorptive cap onto the battery.
| devwastaken wrote:
| hydrogen sulfide is not anywhere in the same category. When
| you consider failure you have to consider what is the most
| catastrophic possibility and if that is "this battery
| silently kills people" then you dont make it.
| cyberax wrote:
| > hydrogen sulfide is not anywhere in the same category.
|
| It has the same LD50 dose as HCN. It literally _is_ just as
| bad. It routinely kills people on oil rigs because in
| lethal concentrations it immediately shuts off your nose.
|
| How often do you hear about people getting poisoned by it
| from lead-acid batteries?
| zdragnar wrote:
| The only people with any significant amount of lead acid
| batteries on their property are off grid types who
| typically store them away from their primary domicile as
| a fire safety precaution.
|
| Fast charging a car/chemical weapon in your garage isn't
| terribly appealing.
| wat10000 wrote:
| We pipe methane into millions of homes. I don't think "this
| can silently kill people in the worst case" is enough to
| block something.
| zdragnar wrote:
| We also have to adulterate that methane with bitter
| smelling agents too warn people of the danger when
| there's a leak. The line into the house is also limited
| by a regulator to ensure the pressure is very low. If gas
| builds up in a battery, it's either going to leak out
| slowly or build up and leak out all at once.
|
| Very much not an equal comparison.
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| Or you could just have the batteries in a separate enclosure
| away from your house. I think I would be inclined to do this
| anyway, certainly for Lithium batteries given the possibility
| of fire.
| hunterpayne wrote:
| Its metallic sodium. Its about 30 times more volatile than
| Lithium. We don't use metallic sodium for almost anything
| industrial because of this volatility. I assumed there would be
| some mixed Li-Na-ion batteries. A pure Na-ion battery is an
| explosive waiting to go off. Putting these in a car...seems
| rather like a poor choice unless you are a personal injury
| lawyer.
| cyberax wrote:
| Just remember, the US Na-Ion battery startup died last year with
| _products_ _in_ _warehouses_ just because it couldn't get a UL
| certification. All it needed was a bridge loan.
|
| And the government did nothing.
| btheunissen wrote:
| Starting to think that the American century of humiliation meme
| was prophetic.
| iugtmkbdfil834 wrote:
| One could argue that in that case, doing nothing was very much
| a choice.
| joe_mamba wrote:
| "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake"
| trynumber9 wrote:
| >And the government did nothing.
|
| Why didn't a private investment company, even venture capital,
| extend them a bridge loan? It seems like the type of technology
| that could have decent returns in licensing fees.
|
| I ask this question because it seems odd to someone in the
| software world so flooded with startups that the _government_
| would be expected to intercede on behalf of a startup.
| cyberax wrote:
| Apparently, there were shenanigans from investors/creditors.
| So the company got quietly carved up instead of going through
| a bankruptcy auction.
|
| I'm looking forward to the eventual investigational report.
|
| BTW, the company was Natron Energy.
| wat10000 wrote:
| Decent returns aren't enough for a risky investment, they
| need to be spectacular returns.
|
| The benefit to the country as a whole is potentially large,
| but most of it wouldn't show up as profit for the company
| itself. I'm sure it would do quite well if it was successful,
| but the benefits to car manufacturers and to having this sort
| of technology on-shore would not translate into monetary
| returns on private investment. That's the sort of thing
| government intervention is good for.
| tadfisher wrote:
| In this case, Natron was focused on energy-storage for data
| centers, a sector which is ordinarily a prime recipient of
| government intervention.
| simmerup wrote:
| Think not,'what can my country do for me?', but, 'How can I
| further enrich Trump'
| thescriptkiddie wrote:
| note that the quoted 170Wh/kg is about the same as currently
| available LiFePO4 cells and half that of the best available NMC
| cells
| dboreham wrote:
| People posting claims about EV charging time should be required
| to also post the size of cable required. And the grid capacity
| needed to provide their fast charging at a typical 8-bay charging
| site.
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