BYD is well regarded and established here in Australia and will be in Canada ( wearing both my hats )
I’d advise EVERYONE considering an EV to sit tight until the reality of SSB and other non-lithium batteries settles in ( BYD will lead ).
The insanely lower cost, range and charging speed will totally disrupt the LiOn industry and call into question all the billions spent on mega factories, lithium mines and geopolitical maneuvering.
If I remember correctly, the CEO of BYD was a chemical engineer or a metallurgist or something similar in terms of educational background, and started and ran a battery company for a while. He realized early on that battery tech would be a major differentiator in the nascent EV market, and pivoted. I could be off on some of the details, but by most reports, the attention to the charging and power systems is one of the major reasons BYD seems to be ahead of its Chinese rivals and has made quicker inroads into foreign markets. There’s a major dealership here in Luxembourg and I see lots of their cars on the road. Not as many as Tesla, but they’re catching up.
I should have made it clearer that I was referring to the Donut SSbs
The Donut Lab is made entirely from abundant, affordable, and geopolitically safe materials, does not rely on rare or sensitive elements, and demonstrates a lower cost than lithium
After a bit of poking about, I’d say it’s almost certainly a scam. Probably deserves its own thread, though, as I’m not sure what a bunch of Finnish fraudsters (or revolutionary inventors, take your pick) have to do with our banker-turned-politician PM.
My sense of the technology business is that there is always some great new development on the horizon and if you postpone buying until that thing is available, something else will be expected soon. So buy now, based on the best available technology (especially one that’s reliable) and at least have the benefits of the technology as it stands today.
There are very few disruptors that offer 10x cheaper…this is one.
Cost are moving now…from $100 per kWh to $10…
What if the cost of powering an electric vehicle or storing renewable energy dropped by a staggering 90%? That’s the bold promise CATL, the world’s largest battery manufacturer, is making with its new sodium-ion battery technology. By harnessing the natural abundance of sodium, an element found in something as common as table salt, CATL has slashed energy storage costs to an unprecedented $10 per kilowatt-hour. This innovation has the potential to transform not just electric vehicles (EVs) but also renewable energy systems, making clean energy more accessible than ever. Yet, as with any disruptive breakthrough, questions linger: Can this technology scale to meet global demand? And how will it fare against the entrenched dominance of lithium-ion batteries?
Googling, the first cars with solid-state batteries might not be available for several years. If you’re willing to wait that long, good for you. Others may want to get an electric vehicle earlier than that.
I’ve been selling tech ( Mac ) for 40 years.. most are incremental changes…some changes are not…this is one that is disruptive both sodium ion and SSB.
If the batteries are 10x cheaper, longer range, charge faster …what will that do to the residual value of all current EVs.?
Why ever would you buy into now dated tech at high prices.
Where you get 1,000km range https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wx2p2fN6c0 &1
1000km range EV: Dongfeng’s solid-state battery breakthrough explained
Cost per kWh is important, but it’s not necessarily the most important thing for an electric vehicle. For something that moves, energy density per weight and/or volume can be much more important. Cheap batteries are what you want for load-balancing in the power grid, because those can just sit there on cheap land somewhere, but I don’t think those use Li right now, anyway.
Donut Labs is a small, recently formed company, dating back only a few years and having a few dozen employees.
They’re claiming to have developed a battery with:
double to triple the energy density of competing battery chemistries
charge an order of magnitude faster than competing battery chemistries
two orders of magnitude greater cycle life than competing chemistries
cheaper to manufacture due to no exotic chemistry
If true, this would be astonishingly revolutionary. Incredible, really. Massive well-funded research departments of giant corporations like Panasonic and Samsung have been working on battery chemistry for decades. A great deal of progress has been made, but mostly all incremental. This would be a massive breakthrough. Made by a tiny company with a shoestring budget.
It’s an extraordinary claim, so what’s the evidence? Well, there’s some cool promo video, and they had a booth at CES. There’s a bunch of hand-waving about nano-this-and-that etc etc.
There’s no 3rd party verification testing, no published science, no actual data.
We’ll know soon enough. Supposedly this year’s model of the Verge TS Pro electric motorcycle will ship with the Donut Labs batteries. Either these batteries will make it into the real world, and people will be able to verify the claims. Or they’ll be vaporware, subject to shipping delays and never quite making it to release.
Is there a precedent for a small company to do what the majors could not that was fundamentally disruptive- yep
It was a small lab at an agricultural chemical company.
Nichia Corporation: Nakamura developed the technology at this, at the time, small chemical company.
Recognition: Although the invention revolutionized lighting and made the company billions, Nakamura was initially awarded a tiny bonus of just ¥20,000 (roughly $200 USD) by his employer.