Sodium batteries will never rival lithium. Lithium and sodium are both alkali metals, which means that they share many chemical properties. Basically, any compound or battery that you may develop with sodium can also be done with lithium. The advantage of lithium is that it's lighter and has better electric features for making batteries. This translates into higher energy densities, lighter weight, better performance and longer life.
(Fig. 2 in this second link is specially illustrative)
While you are expecting sodium-ion batteries to improve their technology and aiming at matching current lithium-ion batteries at about 160-180 Wh/Kg, more efforts and research is being done in better lithium-ion and lithium solid state batteries, so the gap between the two types of chemistries (lithium vs sodium) will never reduce but the opposite.
Current laboratory scale solid state batteries have energy densities of about 400 Wh/kg, while sodium-ion are aiming at reaching 200 Wh/kg. The future is solid-state lithium batteries. All stakeholders have assumed it and most money is invested in that direction. They will be even lighter than lithium-ion ones, faster to charge but also safer (less risk of fire).
Speaking about risk of fire, an EV has less risk of fire than a conventional ICE car. So before switching from lithium to sodium, consumers should run away from ICE machines:
Finally, companies releasing state-of-the-art sodium-ion batteries assume that their target market is not EVs but Energy Storage in developing countries, where energy density is not a concern but every dollar counts:
From the Northvolt link: The sodium-ion technology, which has been developed together with research partner Altris, is intended to provide the foundation for Northvolt's next-generation energy storage solutions. The low cost and safety at high temperatures make the technology especially attractive for energy storage solutions in upcoming markets including India, the Middle East and Africa.
In conclusion, EV consumers need range (=lithium, not sodium), and are not concerned about fires.
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