For decades, lithium-ion has been the reigning monarch of battery tech. Its reign has powered everything from your smartphone to electric cars and sprawling solar farms. But now, the world’s largest lithium battery manufacturer is hedging its bets on… SALT!
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited — better known as CATL — controls roughly 40 per cent of the global lithium battery market. When CATL talks, the industry listens. And in a recent interview, co-founder Robin Zeng suggested that up to half the battery market could eventually switch to sodium-ion technology.
Why would the king of lithium willingly back a rival? Because sodium-ion batteries are starting to look surprisingly competitive.
Almost Lithium, But Cheaper
Sodium-ion batteries aren’t exactly a new idea. Sodium behaves similarly to lithium in electrochemical terms, and the basic architecture of a sodium-ion battery mirrors that of its lithium cousin. The catch? Sodium is heavier and less energy-dense, making sodium batteries bulkier for the same energy output.
But here’s the twist: sodium is abundant and cheap. Think oceans full of it. It also sidesteps the environmentally destructive mining practices tied to lithium and cobalt. For manufacturers, that means lower costs, fewer geopolitical headaches, and a cleaner supply chain.
CATL already offers a hybrid lithium-sodium battery pack for electric vehicles and claims its second-generation sodium batteries will hit 200 Wh/kg — a significant jump, though still shy of top-tier lithium batteries at ~300 Wh/kg.
Why Now? Timing and Technology
Lithium prices have plummeted over the past three years, down nearly 70 per cent thanks to oversupply. That’s undercutting sodium’s immediate financial appeal. But long-term, sodium offers something lithium can’t: insulation from volatile metal markets.
Beyond cost, sodium has technical perks:
- Temperature resilience: Sodium-ion cells perform better in freezing conditions, where lithium-ion batteries tend to struggle.
- Safety: Sodium is less prone to thermal runaway (a polite way of saying “battery fire”), which matters when you’re stacking hundreds of megawatt-hours in a grid storage facility.
Those advantages make sodium a strong candidate for stationary energy storage, where size and weight matter less than cost and safety. Electric vehicles? That’s more complicated, but companies like CATL and rival BYD are betting sodium will eventually get there.
Not Just China’s Game
China’s giants are leading the charge. BYD, the world’s second-largest battery maker, is building a massive sodium battery gigafactory slated for 2027. Meanwhile, U.S.-based Natron Energy is scaling its own sodium battery production, albeit targeting data centres and telecoms rather than cars.
On the research front, innovations like organic cathodes (think metal-free battery chemistry) could help close sodium’s energy density gap. A recent breakthrough at MIT’s Dincă Lab hints at sodium batteries that rival lithium performance at a fraction of the cost.
The Catch-22 Situation
Here’s the sobering part: sodium batteries are stuck in a chicken-and-egg scenario. They’ll only get cheap with mass production, but mass production won’t happen until they’re cheap. And lithium still holds a vice grip on industries that demand high energy density.
But unlike many “next big thing” technologies perpetually stuck in the lab, sodium batteries are already rolling off factory lines. For grid storage, they’re arguably ready for prime time.
Whether sodium will dethrone lithium remains uncertain. But in an industry where incumbents rarely bet against themselves, CATL’s pivot toward salt suggests a storm is brewing. And in the battery world, storms can change markets overnight.
