• fart_pickle@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Sodium-ion batteries have been in development since 1970s and the lithium-ion batteries have been in development since 1960s. Not much of a difference.

    • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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      4 months ago

      It’s not just the amount of time. The portable electronics market and the electric car market both settled on lithium batteries, which created a huge demand for that particular technology. Over the past 2 decades there has been a massive incentive to develop smaller, denser lithium batteries.

      There may be interest in developing other battery technologies, but nothing like the amount of money being spent on lithium batteries.

      • turmacar@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        And before that there were several decades of massive incentive to develop smaller more powerful ICE engines.

        Lithium probably has some room to grow, but it also has a lot of problems like volatility and materials sourcing. EV manufacturers have been searching for ways to make better/cheaper/denser batteries, not better/cheaper/denser lithium batteries. They’ve been actively searching for alternatives.