China’s Refining Giant Jumps Into the Battery Business

China’s biggest refiner, Sinopec, has set up a venture with South Korea’s LG Chem to develop sodium-ion batteries for the storage industry and for “low-speed” electric vehicles, the company said. This is the first foray of Sinopec in the battery industry. LG Chem said, as quoted by Korean media, that sodium-ion batteries have a number of advantages over alternatives, such as abundant raw materials, lower production costs, and slower degradation rates at low temperatures compared with lithium-ion batteries ...