Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers BYD and Huaihai Holding Group have announced a partnership to become world leaders in producing sodium-ion batteries for small EVs.
BYD’s subsidiary FinDreams signed an agreement with Huaihai in June to build a sodium-ion battery production site in China, according to a press release shared by CnEVPost, which covers China’s EV industry.
although the impacts of extracting lithium are considerably lower than for oil and gas, mining lithium does have environmental costs.
Enter the sodium-ion battery. Sodium is cheaper than lithium and widely available. Sodium batteries don’t have the energy density of lithium ones, but they work better in cold temperatures and can likely handle more charge/discharge cycles, per CleanTechnica. Plus, processing sodium for batteries has the potential to be more environmentally friendly, though this is still being developed.
A recent report from UBS estimates that global car production will exceed sales by 6% this year, leaving an excess of 5 million vehicles that will require price cuts to get sold off of lots, Yahoo Finance reported. Although those price cuts might not happen until the latter half of 2023, automakers are preparing for a price war, and some electric vehicle makers are already slashing prices
US & China auto manufacturers are reving up production of vehicles.
The Chinese are coming to the US EV market.