Sodium-ion batteries scale up, but deliveries are still unconfirmed

What happened

Battery-Tech Network reviewed where two new battery types stand in 2026: sodium-ion and all-solid-state. Its main finding is that sodium-ion has reached industrial scale, while all-solid-state cells are still mostly a plan for 2027 and later. CATL, the world's largest battery maker, calls its sodium-ion product Naxtra. The company says the cells reach up to 175 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg). Its first sodium-ion cell, shown in 2021, reached up to 160 Wh/kg.

CATL has added 40 GWh a year of sodium-ion capacity at Fuding in China. On 27 April 2026 it signed a three-year, 60 GWh supply deal with energy storage company HyperStrong. CATL planned first storage deliveries in China in September 2026 and 1 GWh of total storage shipments by the end of the year. By early October, the article found no independent report of a completed delivery. This is the gap between an announced plan and a confirmed product.

In February 2026, CATL and carmaker Changan unveiled what CATL calls the first mass-production passenger car with sodium-ion batteries. CATL said it would reach the market by mid-2026 with a pure-electric range of over 400 km. Other makers are also active. HiNa and Tonly delivered a 676 kilowatt-hour sodium-ion mining truck in July 2026. Battery-Tech Network counts eight makers with named sodium-ion products, and four with products delivering or on the grid.

Not every company has survived. The article notes that Natron Energy, a United States sodium-ion maker, stopped operating in September 2025 and abandoned a planned $1.4 billion factory in North Carolina. Solid-state timelines have also moved. Samsung SDI targets mass production of sulfide solid-state cells from the second half of 2027. BYD plans small trials in about 1,000 vehicles around 2027. Toyota's target has moved several times and now sits at 2027 to 2028.

The engineering behind it

A sodium-ion cell works like a lithium-ion cell. As general knowledge, ions move from one electrode to the other through an electrolyte during charging, and back again during discharge. The difference is the ion. Sodium is common and cheap, and these cells use no lithium or cobalt. But sodium ions are larger and heavier, so the cells usually store less energy per kilogram. That is why 175 Wh/kg matters: it brings sodium-ion close to lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells.

Cold weather is where sodium-ion shows its strength. CATL says Naxtra keeps more than 90 percent of its capacity at minus 40 °C, delivers nearly three times the discharge power of a similar LFP battery at minus 30 °C, and still works at minus 50 °C. Battery-Tech Network adds that a sodium-ion heavy truck from FAW Jiefang and HiNa ran more than 15,000 km in road tests and kept over 90 percent of usable capacity at minus 40 °C.

Cost is not yet in sodium-ion's favour. In a September 2026 storage tender in Renqiu, Hebei, sodium-ion bids averaged about $153 per kilowatt-hour, while LFP bids averaged about $79. The article warns that the lots were very different in size, 40 against 360 megawatt-hours, so this is a market signal, not a clean comparison. HiNa, a sodium-ion maker, expects costs to meet lithium levels in 2027 or 2028. That is a company forecast. Raw materials explain part of the gap. The article reports that lithium carbonate rose above 5,000 per tonne in early 2026, which helps sodium-ion compete.

For the electronics engineer, a new chemistry means new settings. In general, each cell type has its own voltage curve, safe voltage limits and temperature behaviour. The battery management system (BMS), which measures every cell and controls charging, must be tuned for that chemistry. A charger designed for LFP cells cannot simply be connected to sodium-ion cells without checking these limits.

What it means in Nepal

These reports come from China, Korea, Japan and the United States, and none of them covers Nepal directly. The useful lesson for a student is about the type of work. Batteries now sit inside electric vehicles, home solar systems, telecom tower backup and grid storage. Each of these needs engineers who can choose a chemistry, size a pack, design its charging and protection, and check how it behaves in heat and cold.

Cold-weather performance is a design question for any place with cold winters or high-altitude sites. A battery that keeps its capacity at low temperatures may need less heating, which saves energy. But a lower energy density means a heavier pack for the same storage. Engineers must weigh these trade-offs against the price, which, as the Hebei tender shows, is still higher for sodium-ion today.

The story also teaches a habit. Battery news is full of targets: dates, densities and prices that companies hope to reach. A careful reader separates three things: what a company says it will do, what a tender or customer has bought, and what an independent source has confirmed was delivered. Only the last one is a fact about the market.