Volkswagen (VLKAF) -) is looking for a piece of the future.
Last month, Thomas Schaefer, the German automaker's brand manager, told staff during a meeting at its Wolfsburg headquarters that the brand is “no longer competitive."
Related: Amazon faces backlash from users over upcoming change to Prime service
In order to secure a place in the electric vehicle sector, the company that made the Beetle said it would be implementing near $11 billion in savings programs that will include a reduction in staff.
Volkswagen-backed JAC Yiwei EV powered by sodium-ion battery starts mass production in China
— CarNewsChina.com (@CarNewsChina) December 27, 2023
👇https://t.co/gCugVMoQS8
Volkswagen has also been investing in China, the world's largest electric vehicle market.
In July, VW signed a deal to jointly develop two new electric vehicles for China with Chinese EV maker Xpeng (XPEV) -). As part of the agreement, VW invested $700 million in Xpeng, taking a roughly 5% stake.
Unveiling new hatchback
The company also has a 75% stake in — and management control of — JAC Motors, and owns 50% of JAC’s parent company, Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Holdings (JAG). The Chinese government owns the other 50% of JAG.
On Dec. 27 JAC's new brand Yiwei unveiled what is being called the first sodium-battery powered electric car. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in January.
The Yiwei EV hatchback will have a cylindrical sodium-ion pack from Beijing-based HiNa Battery and adopt JAC’s Unitized Encapsulation (UE) module technology, CarNewsChina reported. UE is also known as a honeycomb design because of its appearance
AC’s UE is similar to BYD’s (BYDDY) -) Blade battery, which is used in Toyota (TM) -), Kia, and Ford (F) -) EVs, according to Electrek, and it can also be compared to CATL’s CTP (cell-to-pack) technology.
Hina Battery was founded in 2017 and released its sodium-ion battery in the same year. The company is affiliated with the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In April, JAC showcased a separate EV called the Yiwei 3 at the Shanghai Auto Show. The model launched in June with an LFP lithium battery, but JAC promised the sodium-ion variant would launch later.
Lithium vs. sodium
Lithium is the most common element in battery manufacturing and China controls 61% of global lithium refining capacity used for battery storage and electric cars, the consulting firm GEP said.
Lithium prices had soared in recent years, but have fallen lately and could slip another 30% in 2024, Reuters reported, as growing supply from all major producers outpaces the rise in demand from battery users.
Prices tumbled 77% this year after Beijing slashed subsidies for electric vehicles from January, dragging down lithium ore prices and hurting global miners' profit margins.
Sodium-ion batteries are considered a promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries.
Sodium is more than 500 times more abundant than lithium. Sodium-ion batteries charge faster than lithium-ion variants and have a three times higher lifecycle.
However, lithium-ion batteries have a higher energy density, enabling them to store more energy in a given volume.
In addition, sodium-ion batteries lack of a well-established raw material supply chain and the technology is still in early stages of development.
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