Is the emergence of sodium ion batteries a precaution or a response to the lithium shortage crisis?

On July 29, CATL completed its first "webcast" of the company's launch with a live broadcast of just 10 minutes, and according to brokerage analysts, the greater significance of this "extremely dense information" launch is that "fundamentally changed the investment logic of new energy".

For, CATL released the first generation of sodium-ion batteries.

Of course, CATL is not the inventor of the sodium-ion battery; related research dates back as far as the 19th century, and more than 20 companies worldwide are currently working on sodium-ion batteries. However, sodium ion batteries have been slow to become commercially available due to their larger size compared to lithium ion and more stringent requirements in terms of material structural stability and kinetic performance.

Now, CATL has taken the lead in breaking through the technical bottleneck, releasing the advantages of sodium ion batteries to the greatest extent: firstly, sodium, as the sixth most abundant element in the earth's crust, is far more abundant than lithium, which means that, after the industry chain is gradually improved, the cost of sodium ion batteries will be much lower than that of lithium batteries.

Secondly, CATL's sodium ion battery has better thermal stability, low temperature performance and high integration efficiency. Officially, its charging at room temperature for 15 minutes, the power can reach more than 80%; in -20 ° C low temperature environment, also has more than 90% discharge retention rate; system integration efficiency can reach more than 80%; thermal stability far exceeds the national strong standard safety requirements.

Moreover, CATL has also significantly compensated for the shortcomings of low energy density of sodium ion batteries. The energy density of the first-generation cell released is 160Wh/kg, which is not as high as that of ternary lithium batteries (over 200Wh/kg), but is already higher than that of lithium iron phosphate batteries (140Wh/kg) actually installed in vehicles today. CATL said that the company is pushing sodium-ion batteries into the fast track of industrialization, and the next-generation battery energy density research and development target is more than 200Wh/kg.

In addition, CATL has taken a different approach to battery system integration by developing the AB battery system solution, i.e. sodium ion battery and lithium ion battery are mixed and matched in a certain ratio and integrated into the same battery system, and the BMS precision algorithm is used to balance the control of different battery systems. The AB battery system solution not only makes up for the shortcomings of sodium-ion batteries in terms of energy density at this stage, but also brings into play its advantages of high power and good low temperature performance. Based on this system structure innovation, more application scenarios can be developed for lithium-sodium battery systems.

There is no doubt about the prospects of sodium ion batteries, and for CATL Time, it has once again solidified its position as a global leader in the field of power batteries, and has opened up a broad market to create the next profit machine.

Some analysts point out that in recent years, the price of lithium resources continue to climb, while lithium battery technology is difficult to have a major breakthrough in the short term, in the face of the increasing price reduction requirements of host plants, CATL is in urgent need of chips to hedge the risk of rising prices of upstream raw materials. Given that sodium-ion batteries can directly use the existing lithium-ion battery production line and abundant raw material resources, coupled with strong advantages in cost and performance, it is undoubtedly the best choice at the moment.

At the same time, as the technical challenges of sodium-ion batteries are overcome, CATL's energy storage business can also achieve rapid development. Huang Shilin, vice chairman of CATL, has said, "At the beginning of the company's establishment, one of the goals of the business was power batteries, and the other was energy storage batteries." Under the country's dual carbon strategy, the demand for energy storage scenarios will be huge. Sodium ion batteries with longer cycle life and higher safety are clearly more desirable than lithium batteries.

For the country, sodium-ion batteries also have important economic value and strategic significance, which can not only significantly reduce China's import dependence on lithium resources and reduce the risk of "necking"; it can also accelerate the popularity of new energy vehicles; gradually eliminate the lead-acid batteries that seriously pollute the environment; increase the proportion of renewable energy generation and optimize the energy structure.

CATL predicts that sodium ion batteries will form a basic industrial chain by 2023. Industry experts believe that it is expected to be the first choice for energy storage, two-wheeled, Class A and below electric vehicles by then.

However, it should be noted that sodium-ion batteries are not a replacement for ternary lithium batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries, and statements like "CATL's era of sodium-ion batteries" are misinterpreted. Water drop car from the enterprise to understand, CATL has today's global status, with its complete technical route, "lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium two-legged walk" inseparable. Chairman Zeng Yuqun has said bluntly: "We are used to anxiety, so Western food is also done, Chinese food is also done, basically can not be biased, the whole industry chain is done."

So to be precise, sodium-ion batteries are a new bottom card in the hands of CATL as it runs towards the TWh era, and it will serve as a supplement to the existing power battery technology to meet the differentiated needs of the increasingly segmented market for batteries after the new energy industry enters a multi-level, multi-type and diversified development stage.

But no matter what, the first generation of sodium ion batteries released by CATL still caused a considerable shock to the upstream and downstream industries. Brokerage analysis pointed out that it will directly challenge the forward investment logic of lithium mining, lithium processing, cathode materials, copper foil enterprises, and also have a great negative impact on the 2nd-tier and 3rd-tier battery enterprises; the host plant, diaphragm, anode, structural parts, conductive agent enterprises are on the positive side.