We’ve missed chance in EV technology

BACKED by Volkswagen, the first electric cars using sodiumion batteries rolled off a Chinese production line in December.

They’re able to recharge from 10% to 80% in just 20 minutes and can hold their charge well. Meanwhile lithium-ion battery packs continue to fall in price and now there’s an alternative technology, I think prices will fall further.

Sodium-ion batteries are at an early stage of development, just as lithium based batteries were in 2013 when prices halved in just three years.

Could the same happen to sodium-ion batteries?

Certainly, there’s a lot of research showing potential for improvements and the raw materials are far cheaper and more abundant.

Cambridge-based market research firm Idtechex thinks that sodium-ion technology will take off as it’s more sustainable, easier to manufacture and transport and potentially higher performing than lithium batteries and it uses cheaper materials. Other analysts say that lithium technology will improve and become better value in response. Both are probably true and it’s good to see plans for manufacturing both options in Europe.

Competition between technologies and manufacturers is good news for the car market and it’s increasingly looking like the UK was right to target 2030 rather than 2035 to make the switch to electric vehicles.

A lot will happen in six more years and it’s increasingly clear that Rishi Sunak has done the public and the industry no favours announcing a delay because the technology is moving so fast. We have lost the opportunity to fully engage in what is clearly an inevitable revolution in vehicle technology. ANANDA NIDHI