Made from more affordable and more abundant materials than li-ion, sodium batteries promise more abundant and more affordable electric vehicles – but will sodium batteries be practical for commercial trucks? Chinese truck brand FAW Jiefang is working to find out.
Chinese heavy truck brand FAW Jiefang recently completed a full-condition, systematic test that ran for nearly seven months and covered more than 15,000 km (~9,350 miles). The tests closely tracked its electric truck fleet’s real-world operations in both extreme heat and cold, relying on continuous service-style operations (as opposed to laboratory test cycles) that exposed the sodium-ion battery packs to the kinds of stresses electric trucking fleets actually face on a daily basis: long-haul runs, repeated charging sessions, and constant exposure to changing road and weather conditions.
The results were impressive.
Sodium battery test results
Jiefang J6P electric semi trucks; via CNEVPost.
