Well, maybe Na might become a competitor to LI? But its really a competitor to Lead, half the price, half the weight?
BUT, (always a butt in there somewhere) can it deliver the juice, like 400 amps for 10 or 20 seconds
SO? engineers will need to redesign their systems, to not need the honking amps lead delivers. Can be done, not even really difficult, battery hand tools already do it daily, billions of times.
But will the US auto guys wake up? I think not. It will be India, or China, that go first.
Well that's a good use of Na batteries. Especially for vehicles that tend to sit unused for longer periods. But I wonder how much will they cost? Na batteries potentially promise cheaper prices but Li currently holds an advantage in manufacturing maturity. Na cells currently cost a lot more than Li ones.
Unigrid has unveiled the Na+ (Plus) Fleet battery for automoative applications. The 12-volt battery is a drop-in replacement requiring no vehicle modifications. It uses safer sodium rather than lithium for the cathode for a safer design that uses no rare earths.