Since 2026, the sodium-ion battery industry has achieved breakthroughs, with leading enterprises making frequent moves. Among them: CATL launched the first mass-produced sodium-ion battery in the light commercial field; Zhongna Energy's 10,000-ton sodium iron sulfate cathode material base was put into operation; enterprises such as Zhongwei New Materials, EVE Energy, and Tianna Technology also reported frequent good news in order delivery, capacity construction, and technological research and development, and the entire industrial chain is accelerating its implementation.
Industry insiders believe that with the gradual improvement of the industrial chain and continuous cost optimization, sodium batteries have met the conditions for large-scale commercial promotion. Sodium batteries, with advantages such as good low-temperature performance, high safety, and great cost potential, continue to penetrate into scenarios such as energy storage, two-wheelers, and start-stop power supplies. The industry predicts that sodium batteries will replace or supplement lead-acid batteries and some lithium batteries in multiple fields, and 2026 is expected to be a key node for their commercial implementation.
Leading enterprises are making intensive moves.
On January 22, CATL released the first mass-produced sodium-ion battery for the light commercial sector. At the new product launch event, Gao Huan, Chief Technology Officer of CATL, introduced that this sodium-ion battery can still retain more than 92% of available power in an environment of minus 20°C, and even under the condition of minus 30°C with the cells completely frozen, it still supports plug-and-charge.
It was revealed at CATL's supplier conference held in December 2025 that the company will widely apply sodium batteries in fields such as battery swapping, passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, and energy storage in 2026, which is expected to form a new trend of "sodium and lithium shining like two stars".
A reporter learned from Zhongna Energy that on January 17, the world's largest sodium iron sulfate cathode material base of Zhongna Energy was officially put into operation in Meishan, Sichuan, which is the first 10,000-ton sodium iron sulfate cathode material production base in the industry.
This marks the successful transition of Zhongna Energy's iron sodium sulfate production capacity from the kiloton level to the ten-thousand-ton large-scale production," a relevant person in charge of Zhongna Energy stated. Cathode materials account for nearly 40% of the total cost of batteries. After the Meishan base starts mass production, with the expansion of production capacity, the price and cost of sodium-ion battery cathode materials are expected to be reduced by more than 50% compared with lithium iron phosphate materials.
On January 15th, Zhongwei New Materials stated during a research reception for institutions that in 2025, the company obtained a thousand-ton-level order for sodium-ion batteries and completed shipments. "As the price of lithium carbonate rises, the economic benefits of sodium-ion batteries are initially显现. With the acceleration of industrialization, it is expected that the shipment volume will increase significantly in 2026," Zhongwei New Materials mentioned.
According to EVE Energy, on December 22, 2025, the groundbreaking ceremony for the "EVE Sodium Energy Headquarters and Jinyuan Robot AI Center" project was officially held at EVE Energy's Huizhou headquarters. In the sodium-ion battery sector, the total investment of the project is about 1 billion yuan, with a planned total construction area of about 90,000 square meters. The research and development of "trace-free" and "non-combustible" sodium-ion battery products is also planned simultaneously.
Recently, Tianna Technology also announced that it will build a 10,000-ton annual output industrialization base for sodium-ion battery anode materials. After the project reaches full production, the annual output value is expected to be about 400 million yuan.
Diversified application scenarios are accelerating to open up
Li Shujun, General Manager of Zhongke Haina, stated at the 2025 High-Tech Sodium-ion Battery Annual Conference that if the sodium-ion battery industry was still in the initial stage of development in terms of technological development and market exploration in the past few years, then from now on, sodium-ion batteries have met the conditions for commercial promotion.
Jianghai Securities' latest research report mentions that the average price of sodium-ion battery cells in 2025 is approximately 0.52 yuan/Wh, and it is expected to drop to 0.25 yuan/Wh by 2030. The research institution SPIR predicts that by 2030, the global market size of sodium batteries for energy storage will reach 580GWh, and the market size of sodium batteries for automobiles in the same period may exceed 410GWh.
Overall, breaking through in application scenarios is the key for sodium batteries to open up market space. Whether it is containers in energy storage power stations, battery swap cabinets for two-wheeled vehicles on urban streets, or niche areas such as commercial vehicle start-stop power supplies, the application scenarios of sodium batteries are continuously expanding.
Industry insiders say that due to the characteristics of sodium ions such as large radius, low freezing point of electrolyte, and stable structure of electrode materials, sodium batteries can still effectively maintain their capacity and performance in low-temperature environments, making them one of the ideal choices for passenger cars, light commercial vehicles and other scenarios in extremely cold regions. In addition, the reporter learned that with the increasingly improved supporting system of the industrial chain, sodium batteries are accelerating their penetration into fields such as two-wheeled vehicles and energy storage.
He Guang, General Manager of Xinna New Materials, stated that electric two-wheeled vehicles and some low-speed electric vehicles are relatively sensitive to battery costs. Sodium batteries can balance the cost advantages of lead-acid batteries and the performance advantages of lithium batteries, and may become the mainstream battery products in the electric two-wheeled vehicle market in the future. Regarding the specific market scale, He Guang predicts that the market scale of sodium batteries used in the field of low-speed electric vehicles is expected to reach the level of tens of billions.
In the energy storage market, Zhang Xiaofei, Chairman of GGII, believes that sodium-ion batteries have significant safety advantages and predicts that by 2030, the shipment volume of sodium-ion batteries in the energy storage market will exceed 50GWh. He Guang stated that in terms of the energy storage matching demand for renewable energy such as wind and solar power stations, considering that various energy storage scenarios have higher requirements for battery cycle life and safety performance but relatively lower requirements for energy density, sodium-ion batteries have the potential of both cost and performance advantages and can become a complementary alternative to lithium-ion batteries in the energy storage field.
In the field of start-stop systems, Zhang Xiaofei stated that sodium batteries already have a cost-performance advantage and are expected to replace lead-acid batteries due to their advantages such as good performance, light weight, and long service life. He predicts that by 2030, the penetration rate of sodium batteries in the start-stop market will reach 30%, with shipments reaching 20GWh.
In terms of the industrialization process, industry analysts believe that 2026 will be the node when sodium batteries truly start their commercial application. As products enter the stage of large-scale implementation, the commercial value of sodium batteries will be gradually released, significantly optimizing users' total life cycle costs.
