MOST of us don’t think twice how the performance of a vehicle’s battery (barring electric vehicles or EVs) could affect our driving experience.
Which explains our curiosity with sodium-ion car batteries.
Touted as superior over your standard lead-acid batteries, a number of us got to experience it first hand thanks to Aeson Power as part of their initial strategy to promote their wares and brand.
The technology itself isn’t exactly brand new but their use has been limited until recent through renewed attention and improvements.
At a consumer level the hurdle is probably cost related with sodium-ion options positioned as slightly pricier – not fixed but it can balloon anywhere between an extra RM100 to almost double your standard battery’s price depending on the size and vehicle compatibility.
Realistically there will be some qualities that are still too early to objectively quantify as we only had the battery for a month at the time of writing.
Also it is inferred that all batteries perform at their supposed optimal when new. So we’re trusting the science that sodium-ion batteries do have three times the life cycle of traditional lead-acid batteries and experience minimal degradation at high temperatures.
That said there were immediate noticeable differences such as the batteries being vastly lighter – mine weighed only around a kilogramme and a half or so.
My car did start much faster with only two cranks compared to the usual three or four.
Electronics in my car did felt like it functioned more consistently if that made any sense.
Its hard to tell if the latter was a placebo effect or an actual supposed claim that a sodium-ion’s more stable and superior voltage delivery.
Same goes for minor drive performances that, much like the electronics, felt more consistent and spirited possibly with the electronic control unit (ECU) now working more efficiently.
There’s a lot of faith and guesswork at play but I find the investment for a sodium-ion battery well worth it.
This is based on the notion that the battery did actually improve the car’s performance however minor, and it supposedly having almost double the lifespan over lead-acid batteries.
