This with 500-600 miles range means the end of ICE. 250 is still too little since that will realistically be closer to 150-160 if you’re consistently driving 74-80 mph.
Unfortunately sodium ion is less dense than lithium ion, so range is lower too.
Since it's also cheaper, it's likely that Na-ion will be adopted by cheaper city runabout type EVs, while premium long range EVs will continue using Li-ion.
I saw a CATL presentation where they were hyping a hybrid lithium-sodium pack. Their version of sodium ion could charge/discharge faster than LFP, and handle lower temperatures. The hybrid then gives you a nice combination of features. You get better density/range from LFP, but if you have to start in the cold, the sodium-ion can get you going, and then with active cooling you can heat the LFP using the waste heat from the sodium ion for the rest of the trip. Since the sodium ion charges faster, you can charge part of the overall pack really fast, so you can make a quick trip to the charger and add ~50%. If you live in a cold climate area it seems like a very good combination.
If it can charge as fast as filling up a tank, who cares?
There are already large battery swapping schemes in China with thousands of stations. Even if we don't get to 5-100 charging at 5C+ there's nothing stopping this from not being a problem.
If the arrow of time is to be believed, many of the complaints and gripes and "well aktuallys" from 10 years ago are solved already. And there seems to be no slowing down.
You can’t realistically swap out the battery on a full sized vehicle. It’s too large. The Chinese battery swaps are mostly for bikes and smaller vehicles.
Fast charging would fix it. If you could go from 15 to 80% in truly under 10 mins that would work too.
That assumes there are chargers and that they're available. Not a problem in big cities, but it will complicate road trips, and "range anxiety" remains a real concern for first time EV buyers.
Battery swapping is talked about a lot but AFAICT it hasn't really been successful anywhere. It just seems like a lot more hassle than plugging in, and with charging speeds constantly increasing the payoff is shrinking too.
