There was a video from a youtube channel of a towing company that was them going out to an EV fire and they had to shut down a major road for a port and it took them, like, 3 days of just monitoring the vehicle before they felt it was anywhere close to being safe enough to tow/extract so they could bring it somewhere else to allow it to fully burn itself out. There’s also a major concern for EV fires in tunnels cause there a lot of ways to fire suppress in a tunnel for an ICE vehicle and there’s just… no way to stop lithium from going up and continuing to burn.
Basically, we shouldn’t treat EVs like they’re a magic bullet when they can be MORE dangerous in a lot of ways. It’s important to get off of gas and oil as soon as possible but we STILL have to acknowledge the dangers. Chemistry IS STILL CHEMISTRY whether it’s gasoline or a lithium battery.
Oh shit that’s dope. I had no idea. Looks like they’re on the lower end of range (less than 300miles at best) but expect to make up for it in extreme weather handling.
Specifically, this car has an expected cell energy density of up to 175 Wh/kg while lithium batteries are usually around 150-300 wh/kg. That’s a lot more comparable than I had thought they were.
I’ve heard that Sodium batteries have huge voltage difference full vs. empty. Some sources state the discharge graph is almost linear line in capacitors. Is means, if true, sodium batteries need completely different frequency converter (inverter) design.
And LiFePO4 production seem to have ramped up so much that sodium is still pricier… although, if CATL has enough commitment to continuously produce sodium… tables can turn.
I hope sodium stands up in the test of time but it’s going to be a whiiile since there are still manufacturing at scale hurdles. Tho them working at lower temps will def help EVs sold up north. The only sodium battery in a commercial application that I’m aware of is a Bluetti power station and that seemed to be mostly “okay” but it only came out last year.
There was a video from a youtube channel of a towing company that was them going out to an EV fire and they had to shut down a major road for a port and it took them, like, 3 days of just monitoring the vehicle before they felt it was anywhere close to being safe enough to tow/extract so they could bring it somewhere else to allow it to fully burn itself out. There’s also a major concern for EV fires in tunnels cause there a lot of ways to fire suppress in a tunnel for an ICE vehicle and there’s just… no way to stop lithium from going up and continuing to burn.
Basically, we shouldn’t treat EVs like they’re a magic bullet when they can be MORE dangerous in a lot of ways. It’s important to get off of gas and oil as soon as possible but we STILL have to acknowledge the dangers. Chemistry IS STILL CHEMISTRY whether it’s gasoline or a lithium battery.
Which is why sodium batteries are becoming a thing.
Sure, but those are unlikely to be used in cars any time soon, if ever.
They are already in production.
https://www.catl.com/en/news/6720.html
Oh shit that’s dope. I had no idea. Looks like they’re on the lower end of range (less than 300miles at best) but expect to make up for it in extreme weather handling.
Specifically, this car has an expected cell energy density of up to 175 Wh/kg while lithium batteries are usually around 150-300 wh/kg. That’s a lot more comparable than I had thought they were.
I’ve heard that Sodium batteries have huge voltage difference full vs. empty. Some sources state the discharge graph is almost linear line in capacitors. Is means, if true, sodium batteries need completely different frequency converter (inverter) design.
And LiFePO4 production seem to have ramped up so much that sodium is still pricier… although, if CATL has enough commitment to continuously produce sodium… tables can turn.
I hope sodium stands up in the test of time but it’s going to be a whiiile since there are still manufacturing at scale hurdles. Tho them working at lower temps will def help EVs sold up north. The only sodium battery in a commercial application that I’m aware of is a Bluetti power station and that seemed to be mostly “okay” but it only came out last year.
They are already in production.
https://www.catl.com/en/news/6720.html