Sehol E10X: Affordable Chinese Electric Vehicle with Sodium-Ion Batteries on Test

After the Chinese automotive and battery giant BYD announced the introduction of an affordable electric subcompact car named Seagull in January, the JAC Group is now following suit with its VW joint venture brand Sehol and testing a subcompact car for the first time with cost-effective sodium-ion battery cells. So far, this type of battery has only been used in two-wheelers. The partner involved is the battery specialist Hina Battery. The test vehicle is based on JAC's Sehol E10X subcompact model and features a battery pack with a capacity of 25 kWh and an energy density of 120 Wh/kg. Normally, electric vehicles have an energy density of 150 to 200 watt-hours. This should be sufficient for a range of 252 kilometers and supports fast charging, restoring 80 percent of the capacity within 15 minutes. According to Hina, even at minus 10 degrees Celsius, 90 percent of the capacity is still available. The standard version of the Sehol E10X currently comes with two battery capacities, 19.7 kWh and 31.4 kWh, with a range of 200 km and 302 km. The price is 6,800 US dollars. Sodium as a basic material would be significantly less problematic than lithium, also cheaper and soluble from sea salt.

"We assume that the application of sodium-ion batteries in the market for new energy vehicles will begin with the A00 class, which is why we selected a model like the Sehol E10X for our installation trials," a senior company executive is quoted as saying in a post on Sehol's official WeChat account, as reported by the CnEVPost platform.