I first ran into this story on /r/energy (yeah, I cheated on Beehaw because I had to see what was going on in /r/journalism with the Post news), and while most comments were useful, there was also a tinge of “but it’s China, so that’s bad.”
Well, we were on our way to building up production and infrastructure here in the U.S., which I know because I fucking covered federal grants for green-energy projects and battery production until being laid off Jan. 20, 2025.
I mean, this is like complaining that another kid has a chocolate bar on the playground and you don’t. China invests for the long term. The U.S. needs quarterly returns. We did a lot better at advancing the state of the art in everything when we had robust corporate R&D departments than we do going with share buybacks.
We have lost our edge. Period, graf.
It’s not a “China so it’s bad”. Moreso to do with the fact this Chinese-based industry constantly make wild claims about batteries with zero backups to their claims.
No surprise when people are quick to dismiss a habitual liar.
I’ve been living exclusively off Chinese-made solar panels and batteries for nearly two and a half years. I don’t exactly view them as liars.
Also, your link is irrelevant. We’re talking about CATL here.
No, CATL makes the same wild claims. Just within the last few months they’ve been overselling the capabilities of sodium batteries.
The whole industry is polluted with these fluff claims. Of course we want them to be true, but waiting for results to make noise is wiser.
OK, but where are the data that they’re inflating claims? From where I’m looking, they keep iterating. Your approach feels like sinophobia. What are we doing here in the states? Certainly not announcing new batteries.
Wild claims? “‘We did this thing in the lab.’ It could be a breakthrough provided they can scale production.” The only thing that would make this a wild claim is if they didn’t actually do what they said or if it didn’t work like they said. They didn’t even claim this could be commercialized.
Also, Professor Zhao works at Western University, in Ontario, Canada. Here’s an article about this same research on their website. The only reference to CATL in the article you linked mentions that they are commercially producing sodium ion batteries using a different process.
Here’s a more-recent article then: https://carnewschina.com/2026/01/22/catl-unveils-worlds-first-mass-production-sodium-ion-battery-for-commercial-vehicles/
Public buses in areas of China trialed these batteries and they didn’t live up to their claims which is they can be bought on Alibaba second hand. I don’t have the “energy” to find the articles in English as it’s out the scope of my original comment anyhow. It’s not just claims around CATL batteries, it’s an industry-wide problem.
That longevity likely exceeds the life of the car.
It’d be kind of neat to take the battery from your old vehicle and port it to your new one. An automotive BYOB, if you will.
Well, make it swappable so it can be put into another car? Or use it as energy storage at home?
Good ideas, but you’re missing the biggie - multigenerational cars.
