this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2026
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Those are not “better” batteries chemically or electrically. They are just cheaper and don’t use lithium which is considered a feature.
Cheaper is a kind of better.
Cheap, high longevity, high capacity. You can't have all three.
What's better depends on application. I don't want a cheap battery in my car if I only get 80 miles on a charge.
you can get as much range as you want with just making the battery bigger.
Go reread the thread. You're (hopefully unintentionally) arguing against using sodium batteries for grid storage because lithuim has more energy density.
Cost, high longevity, and heat tolerance are way more important for grid storage than energy density. Sodium batteries are perfect for that, and were poised to start being supplied for that application until the price of lithium tanked at the start of the year.
Also, the sodium batteries that are (and were) about to go to market have enough energy density that manufacturers were considering adding them to cars by mixing and matching sodium and lithium cells in varying ratios to match various use cases. The two chemistries aren't mutually exclusive in any field
Sodium battery performance is better in the cold.
Currently some sodium battery products are out in the market and aren't appreciably cheaper yet and the answer to 'why' was 'cold weather performance'.
Sodium batteries are cheaper, safer, and last longer than lithium batteries. That's exactly what you want for grid-scale energy storage. So yes, sodium IS better than lithium for grid-scale energy storage
They are also fine for cars that don't need to have 1000km of range, for some stupid reason.
And you can even mix-and-match cells of both types in a vehicle to better fit a target demographic. It's not simply one or the other.
That being said, it's better to have a car with a 200 mile range sodium battery and a small range extender for that 2-4 times per year trip