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Altris, Clarios formalize joint development agreement for low-voltage sodium-ion battery systems

Clarios and Altris, a Swedish developer and prototype manufacturer of sodium-ion batteries, announced an exclusive Joint Development Agreement (JDA) for low-voltage mobility applications.

Under the new JDA, Altris will focus on developing the sodium-ion cell technology for low-voltage applications, while Clarios will leverage its expertise in Battery Management Systems (BMS), software, and system integration to design the battery system.

This development agreement enhances a collaboration agreement initiated earlier this year, which set in motion the creation of a detailed production plan for low-voltage vehicle batteries utilizing sodium-ion cells.

Every vehicle, including hybrid and fully electric models, requires a reliable low-voltage energy source to power essential systems and functions. As the complexity of vehicles increases, the low-voltage network must adapt to support a growing array of software-based functions, including steer-by-wire, brake-by-wire, autonomous technologies, and enhanced in-cabin experiences.

Sodium-ion (Na-ion) batteries are well suited to meet these increased power demand and at the same time are inherently sustainable and easy to recycle. Na-ion technology offers an energy density on par with LFP battery technologies and is particularly sustainable due to its environmentally friendly and easily recyclable materials.

The materials used to produce Na-ion cells—salt, wood, iron and air—are abundant and free from conflict minerals and toxic elements. Developing Na-ion batteries for vehicles would represent an important advancement in automotive battery technology and advance the circularity goals of the automotive industry.

This Joint Development Agreement with Altris enables Clarios to further expand our leading position in the development of innovative battery solutions and to meet the growing demand for sustainable energy storage systems. This is a significant step forward with our strategy of being chemistry-agnostic when it comes to producing low-voltage batteries. We now have the ability to manufacture a variety of advanced battery types including absorbent glass mat, lithium-ion and Na-ion to support the low-voltage demands created by advanced vehicle technologies.

—Federico Morales Zimmermann, Clarios vice president and General Manager, Global Customers, Products and Engineering

The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed by the companies.

Comments

mahonj

Anyone got any comments on Sodium vs Lithium batteries?

Nirmalkumar

A hybrid car with about 100 kms electric range and cost at par with IC car and a quick charge sodium battery is the need of hour.

peskanov

Altris have a prussian-white cathode/hard carbon anode. Similar to CATL and BYD.
This chemistry is good for high current charge/discharge and impervious to cold weather, so it's good for the 12V car system...but the fact they are targeting this market (instead of the more juicy PHEV & BEV market) suggest their production cost is not that good.

SJC

The energy density is not as high as lithium ion unless they can show some other advantage it's just the idea that if we run out of lithium we have plenty of sodium it's a non-starter right now

Gryf

ALTRIS is partnering with Clarios for battery applications up to 60 volts. Clarios is a very large global manufacturer of 12 volt batteries. Every vehicle needs 12 volt batteries, e.g. BEV, HEV, ICE, tuktuk, etc.
They will use these batteries in load support EV applications:
https://www.clarios.com/products/clarios-xev
The ALTRIS Prussian-white based battery cell has a 160 Wh/kg energy density which is close to that of LFP batteries.
https://www.altris.se/news/altris-reaches-new-milestone-with-160-wh-kg-battery-cell
ALTRIS is partnering with Northvolt to build BEV batteries, which is planning on a large battery plant in Quebec and works with Volvo, BMW, VW, and Scania.
Also, the Northvolt battery hard carbon anode is a lignin-based hard carbon (called Lignode and made by Stora Enso).
https://northvolt.com/articles/stora-enso-and-northvolt/
No word on costs, however, components are all low cost earth abundant materials.

Gryf

From S&P Global, March 2024:
“ Sodium-ion cells are much cheaper to manufacture than Li-ion batteries. According to S&P Global Mobility research, the cost of manufacturing sodium-ion cells is about $50/kWh, compared with $70/kWh for Li-ion batteries. The cell manufacturing process for sodium-ion cells is also almost identical to that of Li-ion cells. This means heavy investments would not be required if any supplier decides to switch from Li-ion cells to sodium-ion.”
https://www.spglobal.com/mobility/en/research-analysis/briefcase-sodium-ion-batteries-to-unseat-lithium.html

Emphyrio

Sodium Ion is the only way we will get affordable and safe mass market EVs, apart from zero point energy which is Verboten.

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