this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2025
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Batteries
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There is already one car in China that ships with a Sodium based battery.
Honestly I'm more surprised we haven't seen any dual chemistry packs from any auto maker yet. This would be something like 25% Sodium Ion or LFP, and 75% NMC or NCA. So while there would be a slight reduction for total range of the car, the 25% sized battery could be prioritized for heavy charge and discharge while the 75% would only be used when the 25% is exhausted. Additionally this would mean the large majority of the wear and tear on the battery would be on the 25% size, and could be replaced possibly more frequently (every 10 years?) and separately from the 75% battery reducing the overall cost of battery replacement to a fraction of the cost of the whole pack.
Battery lifetime just isn't that important. It's why Tesla's "million mile battery" never happened - there's no market for it.
I think you're missing primary the point of my proposed dual chemistry packs:
LFP and Na-ion are cheaper than NMC or NCA. So the primary benefit isn't cheaper replacement costs (thats just a side benefit). The primary benefit is: lower overall cost of the pack without sacrificing long range.
LFP and Na-ion are lower power density than NMC or NCA. A pure pack of either LFP or Na-ion would give the vehicle a substantially shorter range than a pure NMC or NCA. However a dual chemistry pack would be a cheaper pack as well as still retaining most of longer range.
That would be an interesting idea. It could reduce the price just enough to give a competitive advantage too.