British battery developer Faradion says it has made the first demonstration of a vehicle powered by a sodium-ion battery. In the trial, which took place at Williams Advanced Engineering, an e-bike was propelled by 418Whr battery.
The e-bike battery pack, which has been designed and manufactured by Williams Advanced Engineering, is made up of four modules, each containing 12 cells. The battery is controlled by a battery management system. The development has also involved the University of Oxford, which has worked to maximise battery lifetime.
Faradion says the cells in the proof of concept battery are larger than necessary, but it believes that when the design has been optimised, the cells will be comparable in size to lithium-ion equivalents.
Sodium-ion batteries are believed to be less expensive than their lithium-ion counterparts, offering savings of around 30% in terms of cost per kWhr.
Pictured with a Faradion battery pack is company CEO Lawrence Berns.
Author
Graham Pitcher
Source: www.newelectronics.co.uk