ation, you are of today to of max dw business asks if china is pulling ahead with the auto motor of electric battery technology that's after a short break. and don't forget there's plenty more news and information on our website, dw dot com, and you can follow us on social media, on pablo phone alias for me on the team here in berlin. thanks for watching. take care. the questions got any issues with a lot say what the name shannon with dw wells singing clearing the sizing, the award winning offer is available

for every line which has never been done online on facebook. the app store and youtube called about why does that matter? because now i'm liza the new host will join us for an exciting exploration. and everything in between. this is a video and audio production 5 d, w. i hope that you will tune in the chinese electric cars are making headlines again, because some of them are running on batteries made of salt. well,

that's what's being report did, at least until now, lithium has been the key ingredient and e car batteries, but it's difficult and expensive to obtain. but solves a case sodium isn't. i really can see these headlines in front of me are sold in line batteries. the list, whom killer does china is headstart mean the rule the market again, or do companies in europe stand a chance of competing welcome to this episode of transforming business. the lithium is an ultra light element that's become an integral part of battery technology, but it's relatively difficult and expensive to procure. extraction methods vary depending on where it comes from. the 3 biggest producers are australia, sheila and china, until now, china is by far the largest battery producer. we're going to need more battery capacity in the next few decades. not as far as smartphones,

laptops and electric cars, which is store wind and solar energy, to market with probably the top of that on to 2 of those. and that will be, it's probably times 5 more like this. martino shots, as a professor for the chemistry of energy materials at the university of. yeah, not germany, relying on lithium alone won't cut it. the world will need every option available. and that's where sodium ion batteries come into the picture. so let's take a look at that element beneath the earth's crust and sodium is abundant, making up around 2.3 percent. it might not sound like much, but that's over $1000.00 times more. the amount of lithium found under the earth's crust. not only is it more readily available, but it's also cheaper. in early 2024 sodium carbonate was valued at approximately $290.00 per metric ton. battery grade, lithium carbonate was more than $13000.00 per met 1st tonne and lithium

batteries. the precious materials like cobalt and nickel, to work with sodium doesn't. it's found everywhere. it's simply solved and not limited to a specific region. the, the world's largest battery manufacturer, chinese c a t l already went big on sodium ion technology in 2021. just 2 years later, it was supplying chinese car maker sherry with salt batteries. and recently this e car type from j a c groups he way was in the spotlight. report say that some of the cars from this model are powered by a sodium battery. this probably means that in some chinese cities, tiny salt power d cars are already in use. the we weren't able to find any further information or

figures on how many of them at the moment that i think china is leading to raise one should never give up. but we have just technology small little with us also, i think. but now it's in china and we have to close to well, what does that mean for the big lithium producers, sheila, bolivia and argentina. they constitute what's known as a lithium triangle because together they own about 53 percent of lithium reserves world wide. does the invention of sodium batteries threaten their turn to be tended to compare list to my and then so do you mind technology as competitors? and i really can see these headlines in front of me are sold in mine batteries, the list whom killer. this is alexander google. he's a battery cell development manager at old trust p and william worked for a sweeter sodium ion battery. started up, located about an hour's drive from stockholm, in a city called up. saw

a tells us that is entry into the sodium ion battery sector, started by accident during his post stock. we were producing so much blue powder that there was blue all over the walls and all over the city and herds in the university was that i got set it off. here's how sodium ion batteries are made. first, this bright blue powder is made into a slurry and then coated onto aluminum foil. it's dried in a big machine like this one, and then compressed on the machine like this. the excess is trimmed away with a laser cutter. all these black squares are stacked together before going into a hermetically sealed glove box. here and we're electrolytes are added under controlled environment. then it's just a matter of testing the battery. one of the arguments for sodium on batteries is that they can cycle more, which means they can be used and recharged and use again. more than lithium ion

battery is talking about the lifetime here we have to of course, also talk about in what type of occasions are they being used. for example, portable electronics, a person this very happy if you can charge and discharge your mobile phone for more than a 1000 times without using a lot of capacity. and what about cars? remember the headline that chinese e cars are powered by sodium ion batteries. can't the technology be scaled up with, with the mind batteries? we have a great product market fit for especially electric vehicles. and this is also where we see that the a. so do you mind better? so we'll have a hard time mainly because there isn't an inherently lower energy density to the technology. this isn't that, as has from the swedish firms north fault, a big lithium ion battery producer in europe. it works with all trees and sodium ion battery development and production, and wants to reach full scale production by the end of the decade. the hardest part

about freighting any to that new technology is actually not making one good battery in the, in the laboratory. it's to produce a 1000000 of those, including the supply chain of it, including the, the, the giga factors that you need to build. but why is china so far ahead? experts say that while europe has been researching sodium iron batteries for longer, china actually commercialized them earlier and got a head start of at least 3 or 4 years. one of the main hurdles they face is weight . they tend to be heavier than lithium ion batteries. the physical dimensions uh will be a little bit larger. i'm sorry. these are the main drawbacks of uh, of site in the service listing, and it's the way just the volume. the energy density use that for a little bit low compared to to lithium. william estimates that they're about half as powerful as they're lithium counterparts in terms of generating power. this is a problem for small cars, like those now used in china, put for bigger, avery's meant to drive longer distances. larger and heavier batteries are needed

with a so demising to get but the decline lift it in. but the reproduction at the moment is not on delays and, and loop in the 2 technologies are similar. in many ways, something battery makers have realized. many lithium battery producers have started investing in sodium. i believe rather than viewing list of mine and sodium ion s competitors, it wouldn't be more accurate to see them as a part of a larger landscape and energy storage solutions. so what does china headstart mean for other companies trying to enter the market? can they compete? the fact is that china is a 4 runner in the production of electric vehicles and car batteries. and it's already begun commercializing sodium ion batteries. sodium is cheaper and available in larger quantities than lithium, but sodium on batteries are bigger and heavier. european companies are working on

a viable product, but experts say that china is at least 3 to 4 years ahead. we will probably known a few decades how successful they were. and with our sodium ion batteries will dominate the market or be used along side lithium ones. what do you think? let us know when the comments the

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