this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2026
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Not really there's a reason lithium is still used. Other battery chemistries have other drawbacks beyond longevity.
As far as I'm aware, lithium still isn't beat on energy density.
Yeah and sodium ion batteries aren't solid state yet either I don't think.
They actually are.
https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/bluetti-sodium-ion-portable-power-station/
Not yet at price parity with Lithium Ion, if you go by total charge capacity, and they are heavier and larger per watt hout charge capacity...
... but they can cycle a considerablely greater number of times, they have longer expected lifespans, work better in cold weather, can charge and discharge faster.
EDIT
Derp, ok, the above isn't solid state... but it is a viable product, without being solid state.
Given the rate of adoption and research going into sodium ion related tech, solid state sodium ion may be a thing in under two years... a hell of a lot of people are actively working on solving basically assembly line and industrial use specific problems right now.
If they can scale I could imagine them making good battery arrays. The largest batteries in the world are not a chemical batteries currently however. Think 20-40 GWh vs 400 MWh (at a cursory search) being the largest current chemical battery arrays. Pumped storage plants can't be built everywhere, and are massively huge infrastructure projects, but as we switch more and more to solar energy we are going to need to make it through the nights somehow. They currently are often used to provide grid stability by discharging during peak hours, and buying cheap power to pump water back up during peak production/lowest demand when electricity is cheapest. This works especially well already with many renewables, including wind farms when you don't have control over production. If they can build sodium ion battery arrays cheaply enough though, pumped storage plants could maybe just be obsoleted.
I would think sodium ion would particularly make sense in an EV, or a hybrid.
Even if they aren't as energy dense, per weight and volume... the longevity, the rechargability, the cold weather effectiveness.
That addresses... so many of the problems that EVs as depreciating assets face, and it makes EVs make sense in areas that are currently too cold too often for them to make sense.
A sensible world could make this work so well with a decent charging network.