Margaux Fodéré, edited by Juliette Moreau Alvarez 11:17 a.m., December 01, 2022

It would revolutionize the electric market.

Sodium, used in batteries instead of lithium, could significantly reduce the price of electric vehicles.

If the innovation was not expected for decades, the Chinese giant CATL has announced that it is ready to produce it.

Europe 1 explains why sodium is so popular.

Sodium batteries instead of lithium for our electric vehicles.

This will soon be a reality, starting next year if we are to believe the Chinese manufacturer CATL, the largest producer of batteries in the world, which has announced that it is ready to produce them.

Concretely, what does this change?

Europe 1 explains what sodium can offer our technologies.

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A very reactive metal

Sodium is a chemical element, also called Na in the periodic table.

There is a lot of it in the seas and oceans and it is also found in water bottles, table salt, vegetables or milk, where it is dissolved.

When extracted, sodium appears as a soft, silver-colored metal.

Above all, he is very reactive, and that's what chemists like about him.

Like its cousin, lithium, it produces large amounts of energy when in contact with water.

In its metallic form, sodium is already used in the pharmaceutical industry, cosmetics and pesticides.

Towards an electric car accessible to all?

In battery construction, sodium is gold mine.

Its reactivity, although less strong than lithium, remains valuable for manufacturers: unlike lithium, sodium is much more widespread in nature.

Less rare, it thus becomes less expensive.

A real advantage when you know that the batteries represent a quarter to a third of the price of an electric car.

A boon for Emmanuel Macron, who reaffirmed his desire to make the electric car accessible to all last October.

This could also relaunch the race for electricity for France, since a lot of sodium is found in its soils.

According to French customs, in 2014, France was a net importer of sodium, with an average import price of 2,000 euros per ton.

For the moment, China remains the world market leader, and intends to remain so, succeeding in developing these famous sodium batteries, decades before what was expected.