Image: CATLCATL has been developing sodium-ion batteries for several years. The company took a major step forward in April 2026, when it unveiled its Naxtra sodium-ion battery at its Super Technology Day. CATL says the battery offers an energy density of up to 175 Wh/kg and is scheduled to enter mass production later this year. The Naxtra battery is also expected to power the Changan Nevo A06, a battery-electric model developed for the Chinese market.During the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions in the Chinese city of Dalian, CATL’s management provided further details on the role of sodium-ion technology in the company’s strategy. Ni Jun, CATL’s Head of Production, said the company expects to equip between 10,000 and 20,000 electric vehicles with sodium-ion batteries this year.Additionally, CATL’s founder and CEO, Robin Zeng, stated during a panel discussion that the company is capable of producing sodium-ion batteries with an annual capacity of 100 GWh within the next three to five years. Zeng said: “We can produce a large-scale sodium battery for energy storage, so we get rid of the lithium dependence.”Zeng highlighted two key aspects: first, the high dependence on lithium, whose price in China has risen by 190% since last summer, according to CarNewsChina. Second, he emphasised the attractiveness of sodium-ion cell chemistry for applications beyond electric vehicles, particularly in stationary battery energy storage systems (BESS), such as those used in AI data centres.Coinciding with the event in Dalian, CATL introduced its first BESS featuring sodium-ion cells at another event in Munich. Named the Tener Sodium Energy Storage System, it is reportedly the world’s first field-tested sodium-ion energy storage solution. William Wu, Director of CATL’s Energy Storage Technology Centre, stated during the product launch: “We believe that sodium and lithium together will form the twin foundations of the future energy storage system.”Equipped with CATL’s latest sodium-ion technology, the battery energy storage system offers a capacity of more than 30 MWh based on a fully modular architecture. The system can be expanded with additional modules, with 34 units required to achieve a total capacity of 1 GWh.Sodium-ion batteries are considered a promising alternative to lithium-ion technology because they offer strong performance at low temperatures, are regarded as particularly safe and can be produced using more readily available resources. Unlike lithium, cobalt and nickel, which are often extracted with significant environmental impacts and are concentrated in relatively few regions, sodium is one of the most abundant elements on Earth. It can be sourced cost-effectively from widely available materials such as table salt or seawater.carnewschina.com, weforum.org (Robin Zeng), catl.com (Battery storage)
