Batteries Recharging In Seconds May Revolutionise EV Market

One thing that has held the electric vehicle (EV) market back is taking a long time to charge batteries. Drivers need to make sure theirs is fully charged before long journeys or have to find charging points on route to avoid running out of battery. 

However, if there was a battery that could recharge in seconds, this could change the entire market, making EVs far more appealing to car buyers. It would also be good for manufacturers, helping them to cut costs with their vehicles. 

Sodium-ion battery breakthrough

This could be more probable than many think, as the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has recently made a breakthrough with sodium-ion batteries. 

Professor Jeung Ku Kang and his team discovered that replacing lithium ions in the cathode with sodium ions, and swapping lithium salts in the electrolyte for sodium salts could make for a much more efficient battery. 

Although sodium-ion batteries have been around for a while, one of the negative things about them is they take a long time to charge and they cannot store as much power. 

However, by replacing common battery cathode materials with the ones that are normally used by supercapacitors, Ku Kang and his team might have changed that. 

This produced a sodium battery that can store lots of energy as well as be charged very quickly. 

The report, which was published in Science Direct, stated: “Sodium-ion hybrid energy storage takes advantage of FS/C/G anode and ZDPC cathode electrodes to result in ultrahigh energy density, fast-rechargeable power density, and long-life cycle stability with 100 per cent Coulombic efficiency.”

This means batteries could potentially be charged in seconds, which could alter the EV market forever. If cars could be recharged quickly and efficiently, more drivers would be inclined to own them. 

Additionally, providing more power would mean that car batteries last longer and motorists can get more mileage out of their EVs before having to recharge.

Alternative to lithium

Sodium-ion batteries are becoming increasingly popular, as there are many benefits to using these over traditional lithium-ion ones. These include being safer, as they can be discharged to 0V; being more widely available; and being more environmentally friendly. 

Jean-Marie Tarascon from the College of France said thanks to sodium-ion batteries being 1,000 times more abundant than lithium ones, this can reduce supply chains. They can also operate at lower temperatures and are highly powerful. 

They are regarded as a greener option compared with lithium, as well, due to the mining and shipping of lithium. 

However, Ms Tarascon said: “Sodium-ion technology is really a clone of lithium-ion technology.”

Therefore, as it is easier to source sodium-ion, this would make it easier to produce batteries, and have a lower impact on the environment. 

Rise in BEVs in Europe

The need for faster batteries is set to grow as demand for battery electric vehicle (BEVs) continues to escalate. 

Data from Eurostat showed that BEVs in Europe rose from 1.9 million in 2021 to nearly three million in 2022. This is an increase of 55 per cent within the year. 

This reflects figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT), which showed that the number of new car registrations of BEVs grew by 3.8 per cent from March 2023 to March 2024 in the UK. This took the share of EVs compared with the whole car market to 15.2 per cent. 

Since the start of 2024, there have been 84,314 new BEVs registered, which is a 10.6 per cent growth from the year before when there were 76,233. 

According to Eurostat, the number of drivers with BEVs in Europe is only expected to “grow considerably over the coming years”, due to the impending EU ban on the sale of new combustion engine cars from 2035. 

With the sodium-ion battery technology constantly improving, chemical manufacturing experts believe it will not be long before they surpass lithium-ion ones and become far more commonplace.

As the deadline to net zero carbon emissions of 2050 looms closer, governments around the world are likely to be ploughing money into investing in technology that reduces their country’s carbon emissions, and replacing lithium-ion batteries with sodium-ion ones could be an effective way to achieve this.