Yes, Sodium Ion batteries will be in Chinese EVs rolling out of showrooms this year but those EVs will only be the bottom rung entry level models where sticker price is the most important attribute. Now cost is definitely one of the factors involved when purchasing any vehicle but certainly should not be the only one.
Sodium Ion maybe claiming 80% of LFP performance but that will only be 50 to 60% of the better Lithium Ion chemistries and 30 to 40% of Solid State Lithium performance. SSL is currently more expensive than all the other types but its superiority in energy density and safety will result in it being fitted to all medium and high spec EVs in the near future.
The weight of a vehicle directly affects its efficiency and performance and the battery of an EV is a major contributor to that weight so it is important to keep that as low as possible. It is less important for a hybrid or little short range EV with a small battery but the law of diminishing returns rapidly comes into play when a battery has to be chosen for a larger, longer range EV.
Sodium Ion will have a place in fixed battery storage systems where energy density is less important but IMO it will have minimal applications for future EVs.
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