Yadea, which has held the title of the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer for seven years, recently announced a new electric motorcycle powered by the company's new HuaYu sodium-ion battery technology.
Yadea has long dominated the global electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler market, but has often relied on both lithium-ion and lead acid batteries to power its vehicles in different markets.
The newly launched electric scooter uses Yadea's newly introduced sodium battery technology, offering what the company says is outstanding performance in range, charging speed, and safety. Using the HuaYu Sodium Superfast Charging Ecosystem introduced by Yadea, the battery can reach 80% charge in just 15 minutes, providing passengers with greater convenience.
Yadea's sodium battery has successfully passed more than 20 safety tests, many of which focus on resistance to fire and explosion under extreme conditions such as puncture and compression.
Yadea's new sodium battery offers an energy density of 145 Wh/kg and a life of up to 1,500 cycles at room temperature, with the company estimating five years of useful life. It also includes a three-year warranty for extra assurance.
With excellent low temperature capabilities, the battery retains more than 92% of its discharge capacity at -20°C, making it well suited for cold environments.
Sodium batteries offer great advantages
Most electric vehicles used in the West, especially electric two-wheelers, rely on lithium-ion batteries for most of their high power. But sodium-ion batteries offer many advantages over traditional lithium-ion batteries.
Sodium is abundant in the world and easily accessible, unlike lithium, which is concentrated in certain regions and often expensive to extract. This abundance could make sodium-ion batteries cheaper to produce, lowering costs for EV manufacturers and making electric vehicles more affordable.
Lithium mining also has environmental challenges, such as water depletion and habitat destruction. Sodium, on the other hand, can be found in seawater or common salt, providing a sustainable and environmentally friendly option.
Sodium-ion batteries are more prone to overheating and thermal runaway compared to lithium-ion batteries. This makes them inherently safer for electric vehicles, reducing the risk of fire and improving consumer confidence in EV technology.
Sodium-ion batteries perform better than lithium-ion in cold environments. Lithium-ion batteries struggle to maintain power in cold conditions, but sodium batteries maintain efficiency, making them ideal for EVs in cold climates.
Sodium batteries still have challenges to overcome
Although sodium-ion batteries are promising, they currently have a lower energy-to-weight ratio than lithium-ion batteries, which means they store less energy per unit of weight.
For EVs, this translates to a shorter driving range for the same size battery. That's especially important for electric two-wheelers like motorcycles and electric bikes, which don't have the extra space to store large batteries.
However, advances in cathode materials and battery design are rapidly closing this gap, as demonstrated by Yadea. These sodium-ion batteries still can't match the energy density of lithium-ion batteries, but as they continue to improve their energy density, some major technological gains are providing encouraging signs of major adoption in the industry.
Yadea's status as a major manufacturer of electric motorcycles also means that its adoption of sodium-ion battery technology can help lead the entire industry in this battery chemistry, bringing safety and performance benefits along with it.
Last year I had the unique opportunity to visit one of Yadea's global production facilities.
To see inside the company's large and automated production processes, check out the video below!
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