【SMM Analysis】CATL Unveils New Generation Sodium-Ion Battery: What's the Future of Sodium-Ion Batteries?

On April 21, 2025, at CATL's first Super Technology Day event, the highly anticipated sodium-ion battery was officially unveiled. The newly released sodium-ion battery includes two major product types: a sodium-ion power battery for new passenger vehicles and a sodium-ion 24V integrated start-stop battery for heavy-duty trucks. Their debut sparked strong reactions within the industry, becoming a focal point of attention.

First, let's look at the sodium-ion power battery for new passenger vehicles. Its energy density reaches 175Wh/kg, a leading figure among mass-produced products in the industry, marking the first time sodium-ion battery performance has matched that of mainstream LFP batteries. In terms of driving range, it can essentially meet the needs of daily commuting and medium-to-short-distance travel. Regarding charging speed, it supports a peak charging rate of 5C, allowing a charge from 30% to 80% in just about 37 minutes even in extreme cold conditions of -40℃. In terms of cycle life, it achieves over 10,000 cycles, significantly reducing the cost of battery replacement for users. Moreover, this battery can operate stably across a full temperature range of -40℃ to 70℃, maintaining 90% of its available capacity at -40℃. Even in extreme conditions with only 10% SOC remaining, the vehicle's power output remains largely unaffected. It has also passed rigorous safety tests such as nail penetration, electric drilling, and sawing without catching fire or exploding, demonstrating exceptional safety performance.

The 24V sodium-ion battery for heavy-duty trucks, which integrates starting and parking functions, is also highly impressive, boasting a lifespan of up to 8 years, truly achieving vehicle-battery parity. Its life cycle cost is 61% lower than that of traditional lead-acid batteries, significantly reducing battery-related expenses during heavy-duty truck operations. It features full-capacity deep discharge, one-click start at -40℃, and the ability to start after being idle for a year, making it efficient, environmentally friendly, and economical, driving the commercial vehicle sector towards a lead-free battery era.

CATL, as a global leader in the battery industry, has a significant influence on the entire sector with its every move. The release of the sodium-ion battery reflects an important trend in the global new energy battery field. With the rapid development of the global NEV industry and the rapid expansion of the ESS market, the demand for batteries has surged. However, while lithium batteries are advancing rapidly, they also face issues such as safety concerns, fire incidents, and low efficiency in low temperatures. In this context, sodium-ion batteries, with their unique safety and low-temperature advantages, have encountered unprecedented development opportunities.

From a resource perspective, sodium is extremely abundant on Earth, ranking as the 5th most abundant element in the Earth's crust, accounting for about 3% of the Earth's crust's mass, and its concentration in seawater is 60,000 times that of lithium. This means that compared to lithium resources, sodium resources are virtually inexhaustible, greatly reducing the risk of resource shortages. Additionally, sodium-ion batteries are cost-effective. Although currently, due to being in the early stages of commercialization, their production and manufacturing costs are much higher than theoretical costs, in the long run, with technological advancements and the promotion of large-scale production, there is significant room for cost reduction.

In terms of market applications, the primary application scenario for sodium-ion batteries currently is ESS, mostly in demonstration projects. In the future, as their performance continues to improve and costs decrease, their application fields will further expand. In grid ESS, they play a crucial role in ensuring grid stability and peak shaving; in the field of communication base station backup power, sodium-ion batteries can become an ideal choice due to their excellent safety. In the low-speed EV sector, with their good low-temperature performance and relatively reasonable cost, they are expected to gradually replace lead-acid batteries.

However, for sodium-ion batteries to truly occupy a significant position in the future battery market, they face a series of challenges. In terms of material costs, despite the abundance of sodium resources, the raw material costs for producing sodium-ion battery cathodes remain high, such as phosphorus and nickel resources, and the production technology for these materials has a high threshold, requiring substantial R&D investment. On the industry chain side, the sodium-ion battery industry chain is still immature, with some key aspects like the preparation of high-performance cathode and anode materials not yet fully commercialized for large-scale production, which to some extent limits the capacity increase and cost reduction of sodium-ion batteries.

Overall, the future development prospects of sodium-ion batteries are bright but fraught with challenges, and it is still a development window period for sodium-ion batteries. With the active promotion of industry giants like CATL and the increasing efforts of sodium-ion battery cathode and cell enterprises in technology R&D and industry chain layout, sodium-ion battery technology will become increasingly mature, and projects will gradually be promoted and implemented. SMM believes that sodium-ion batteries will play an increasingly important role in energy storage, start-stop, and small power fields.