Sodium-ion batteries are commercializing with mass production in 2026. CATL in China is scaling it as a cheaper, safer alternative to lithium-ion using abundant sodium from salt. They are targeting grid and stationary energy storage first and more affordable/entry-level EVs or low-speed vehicles and should be lower cost than iron LFP.
CATL’s Naxtra reach ~175 Wh/kg energy density. Iron LFP jas 160–180 Wh/kg). Some Sodium ion prototypes near 200 Wh/kg. Cycle life often exceeds 10,000–15,000 cycles. They have strong cold-weather performance. Estimated 2026 cell pricing around $50–56/kWh. They have safety advantages include better thermal stability and lower fire risk
CATL has a 60 GWh multi-year sodium-ion deal for energy storage with HyperStrong and related partners. CATL has ~28 – 30 % market share. BYD is second place with near-term targets around 30–50 GWh/year. HiNa Battery Technology is third.
Other notable companies include Faradion (UK), Altris (Sweden), Tiamat (France), and Farasis.
Peak Energy (US) is the first dedicated U.S. grid-scale sodium-ion energy storage systems factory. They are in Sacramento, California. Factory is 183,000 sq ft and up to 4 GWh annual capacity. They have a ~$71 million investment. Production and shipments targeted for Q1 2027. They already have multi-GWh customer commitments. Passively cooled systems aimed at cost and reliability advantages for utilities/data centers.
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Very cheap , I can’t wait to get my hands on it , at that price I can put like 50 kWh easily for my home , I got everything electric including my car
Well, I did a little research (with help from Grok):
Tesla is working on sodium-ion battery technology at the research and patent level, primarily through its long-standing collaboration with battery scientist Jeff Dahn’s team at Dalhousie University, though there is no public evidence of near-term commercialization or integration into vehicles/Megapacks as of mid-to-late 2026.
Evidence of Tesla’s Involvement
Tesla has filed a patent application specifically addressing sodium-ion technology:
US20250323309A1 (“Alloying Anode Active Materials for Sodium-Ion Energy Storage Devices, and Methods Thereof”), assigned to Tesla, Inc.
Filed March 19, 2025; published October 16, 2025.
Inventors include Jeffery R. Dahn and members of his research group (Matthew Garayt, Martins Obialor, Yixiang Zhang, Libin Zhang, Yingjie Xing, Michael Metzger, Jay Deshmukh, Chongyin Yang).
It focuses on anode active materials that incorporate alloying elements (such as phosphorus, germanium, tin, antimony, lead, or bismuth), optionally with carbon, to improve volumetric capacity, capacity retention, and coulombic efficiency in sodium-ion cells.
This fits Tesla’s established model of funding and partnering with Dahn’s group (via the NSERC/Tesla Canada Industrial Research Chair and related agreements). The group has previously contributed to key lithium-ion advances that Tesla has commercialized or patented (e.g., electrolyte additives, single-crystal cathodes, longevity improvements). Research outputs from this collaboration typically give Tesla exclusive rights.
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Tesla currently operates roughly 40+ GWh of installed 4680 cell manufacturing capacity, concentrated almost entirely at Giga Texas, where fully dry-electrode production for both anode and cathode is in mass production and the cells have become the company’s lowest-cost option on a per-kWh basis. The Texas lithium refinery is fully ramped and supplies battery-grade lithium hydroxide sufficient to support 30–50 GWh of cells annually, while in-house cathode production has also come online to further reduce external dependencies. Actual output remains below the installed nameplate figure as yields and utilization continue to improve, and Tesla still relies on external suppliers for the majority of its overall battery needs.
By the end of 2027, Tesla’s internal 4680 capacity is expected to reach approximately 60 GWh as Giga Berlin adds 18 GWh of dedicated production starting in the first half of the year. Texas is projected to maintain or modestly expand beyond its current base, supported by the fully integrated lithium-to-cathode-to-cell supply chain. This combination of vertical integration and process advances positions Tesla for lower costs and greater supply resilience relative to peers that depend more heavily on third-party cells.
Taking CATL as an example, they use hard carbon for the anode in a sodium ion battery. This has a much lower energy density than you would see in a lithium ion battery. In either type of battery, the ions shuttle between the anode and cathode on discharge/charge. One of the biggest problems with sodium ion batteries is swelling when this happens. That tends to break stuff after not to many cycles. It happens with lithium ion batteries too, but the problem is worse for sodium ion batteries because the ions are 3x as large. You can sort of think of it as creating little cages for the ions in the anode and cathode that won’t swell too much and break the battery.
The Tesla patent application is specific to the anode. They mix things with the hard carbon that provide a better cage for the ions. From there, it seems like a typical process of mixing with a binder (PVDF is the standard and is mentioned in the patent), a solvent (DMF), creating a slurry, layering it on the current collector (In CATL Sodium ion batteries the current collector is aluminum foil), calendaring (squishing it down to increase the density so it can store more) and so on. Sounds like it is intended to be compatible with the roll to roll manufacturing lines Tesla already uses for their lithium ion batteries. If it really works, it should perform better than the CATL sodium ion batteries because it has a higher storage density, but likely not as well as lithium ion.
The cathode in a sodium ion battery is usually a prussian blue analog (prussian green or prussian white) and the cathode is assembled with a similar process. The electrolyte is a sodium salt (not NaCl). It’s a continuous roll to roll manufacturing process, with the end being a long strip rolled up and shoved into a can (which provides external compression) topped with electrolyte, then sealed into the familiar cells that we see.
From a battery development perspective, most researchers start with a coin cell like the button battery in your garage door opener. Then they move to a flat pack, and finally a rolled cell. The Tesla patent appears to be at the coin cell stage.
The bleeding edge for sodium ion batteries seems to be focused on Sodium-vanadium, but there are a lot of other things going on. It’s all about making the right size cages for the ions in the anode and cathode, then packing as many cages as possible in a can.
As an investor in TSLA, I wonder what Elon has the company working on?