New opportunity for Sodium battery as lithium carbonate price hiking By CBEA battery China
Since beginning of 2025, the lithium carbonate, a key material for lithium batteries, price has seen a significant rebound. Recently, the spot average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has risen to USD11,888/ton, and the futures price of lithium carbonate has even reached USD 12,587/ ton. This is a positive signal boosting sodium battery industry with more battery manufacturers are intensifying their layout of production capacity.
| On new sodium-ion battery, CATL released the world's first large-scale mass-produced sodium-ion power battery "Sodium New Battery"-SNB in April 2025 with energy density @ 175 Wh/kg. It is reported that the SNB has an electric output to drive car @ 500 km and a hybrid range of over 200 km route, and also has a peak 5C ultra-fast charging capability, enabling a cycle life of over 10,000 times. |  |
 | In March 2025, Hina Battery released the world's first sodium-ion battery commercial vehicle solution. Per Hina Battery, the energy density of their battery cells used in this solution has exceeded 165 Wh/kg, and can complete 100% charging in 20-25 minutes. Moreover, the cycle life in the fast-charging mode still exceeds 8,000 times. Hina Battery expects that their sodium battery production capacity will increase to 3 GWh in 2026. |
| It is an obvious trend that Chinese sodium battery products are spreading fast overseas. Recently, a batch of rechargeable sodium-ion batteries exported by Nanchang Weken successfully got a dangerous goods packaging usage certificate and entered the international market by the first batch exported from Fujian Province by sea to Peru via sea. The Sodium battery market application is continuously expanding. Compared with sodium batteries, lithium batteries are disadvantaged by the imbalance of global distribution of lithium resources and the sharp fluctuations in prices. Sodium batteries, however, have the advantages of abundant sodium resources and low raw material cost. According to relevant statistics, the content of lithium resources in the earth's crust is only 0.0065%, while sodium content is 2.74%, and the amount of sodium resources is approximately 421 times that of lithium. |  |
With performance advantages, Industry experts analyze that the energy density and lifespan of sodium batteries are two to three times of lead-acid batteries. Although their energy density is lower than that of lithium iron phosphate batteries, the sodium battery prices are expected to be close to lead-acid batteries. Sodium batteries have strong adaptability and uniqueness in two-wheel electric vehicles, low-speed small cars, starting power supplies, and energy storage, etc.
 | In sedan vehicles, sodium batteries' main competitors are lithium iron phosphate batteries. At the beginning of 2025, the chairman of CATL, Zeng Yuqun, told the media that it is expected that the 2nd generation sodium batteries of CATL will replace 50% of lithium iron phosphate batteries in small vehicles or short-range vehicles in the initial stage. |
| In the two-wheeled vehicle- mostly motorcycle & E scooter field, sodium batteries mainly seize the lead acid battery market. It is known that since 2025, Yadi, China 2 wheel E scooters giant, has released four sodium battery electric vehicle models. Yadi previously predicted that sodium batteries, lithium batteries, and lead-acid batteries will coexist and develop in the electric two-wheeler market in the future, and sodium batteries may reach a market share of 20% to 30%. |  |
Sodium batteries perform well in the start-up Car Battery application scenario. Industry experts point out that in low-temperature environments, the performance of traditional lead-acid batteries is not ideal and cannot fully meet electric vehicles needs. However, sodium batteries can maintain efficient charging and discharging performance, ensuring the stability and reliability of the vehicle's start-up system.
Energy storage is also an important application field of sodium batteries, including base station energy storage, power system energy storage, and many other scenarios. At the end of 2024, BYD released a sodium-ion battery energy storage system, which is expected to be officially launched in the third quarter of 2025. According to the news from China Southern Grid Storage Company, the first large-scale lithium-sodium hybrid energy storage station in China - the Baochi Energy Storage Station of Southern Grid - has exceeded 100 million kilowatt-hours of charging and discharging capacity.
Technology iteration, cost optimization
The price of lithium carbonate used to be as high as USD70k/ton, and it once reached about USD84k/ton. This made sodium batteries, known for their cost advantage, become popular. In the past two years, the lithium carbonate price has continued to drop and has fallen below USD14k/ton, driving down the cost of lithium batteries and making the cost advantage of sodium batteries "diminish".
| Industry data shows that in 1H of 2025, the average price of lithium iron phosphate battery cells was USD0.049-0.053/Wh, while Ternary lithium cell price remained in the range of USD 0.067 -0.073Wh; Sodium-ion batteries was approximately USD0.07/Wh. It is easy to see sodium batteries and lithium batteries have shown a price "reversal". |  |
However, the price of lithium carbonate has started to rebound from the bottom range, and the weakening effect on sodium battery prices will decrease in the future. Some expert in charge of a sodium battery manufacturer in China said that as the energy density continues to increase and the scale and synergy of the industry chain are enhanced, the theoretical cost of sodium-ion batteries can be reduced to about USD 0.042/Wh in 1-2 years, which is the same as or even lower than that of lithium iron phosphate batteries.
 | At present, many battery manufacturers are intensifying their technological research on sodium batteries. Nandu Power stated that the company, targeting the light-duty power and energy storage markets, has developed 20Ah and 240Ah sodium-ion batteries. These batteries feature high-stability sodium-ion positive electrodes and high-density hard carbon negative electrodes, with an energy density of 140Wh/kg and a cycle life of 3000 times. They support 5C charging and discharging and can operate in extremely cold environments of -40℃. |
According to Zero-One-Four media, the company has launched 12V and 24V car start stop Sodium battery, with nearly 400,000 units installed in vehicles of 2024. Additionally, the company's series 46 product of 13Ah full-pole electrode large cylindrical sodium-ion batteries have already in mass production, featuring high-rate characteristics and capable of achieving 15C discharge. They can maintain good discharge performance even in a -60℃ low-temperature environment.
"The sodium-ion batteries of Sunwoda have the characteristics of high safety, high-rate discharge, high energy density, and low operating temperature," Sunwoda also stated. The company's sodium-ion batteries can meet the market demands of class A00, A0, and A new energy vehicles.
With the capacity contentiously generates low cost & high quality goods, the demand for sodium batteries in the downstream market is growing rapidly. According to industry data, global sodium battery shipments reached 3.6GWh in 2024, increasing by 260%; it is expected that global sodium battery shipments will reach 23.1GWh in 2025, increasing by 542%. According to industry forecasts, the global sodium-ion battery market size is expected to exceed 100 billion US dollars by 2030.
Sodium is the future!