The Chinese Academy of Sciences' technological breakthroughs have driven a surge in the sodium battery sector. Has the hurdle of cost reduction been overcome?

AI Questions · When will sodium-ion battery and lithium battery costs truly break even?

Jiemian News reporter | Gao Jing

On April 7, the sodium-ion battery sector surged.

According to data from Tonghuashun, as of the market close that day, among 135 listed stocks in the sodium-ion battery sector, more than 80% of the stocks rose, 3 stocks hit their daily price limits, and 23 stocks rose by more than 4%.

Among them, the top three gainers were Bolivision (688345.SH), Shengquan Group (605589.SH), and Gaole Co., Ltd. (002348.SZ), rising by 20%, 9.99%, and 9.97% respectively, closing at 51.6 yuan, 35.67 yuan, and 8.05 yuan.

This level of capital enthusiasm is related to China’s latest breakthroughs in the sodium battery field.

According to a report in the Science and Technology Daily that was reposted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Hu Yongsheng team at the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently published its latest results in the sodium battery field in Nature Energy.

The team developed a polymerizable nonflammable electrolyte with self-protection functionality (referred to as PNE). When the battery temperature rises abnormally to above 150°C, the PNE automatically transforms from a liquid state into a dense barrier, completely cutting off the propagation pathway of thermal runaway.

The report notes that this is the first time in the world to achieve complete blocking of thermal runaway in ampere-hour-level sodium-ion batteries. In addition, this breakthrough also preserves the advantages of sodium batteries in wide-temperature performance and high-voltage stability. The materials are all mature industrialized products, offering industrialization competitiveness. They are expected to be applied in the CAS–CNO Ha (Zhongke Hai Na) ampere-hour-level sodium-ion battery products.

Sodium-ion batteries refer to batteries that use sodium salts as electrode materials. Compared with lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries have advantages such as abundant resource reserves, lower cost, and faster charging. In theory, the cost of sodium battery materials can be 30%-40% lower than that of lithium batteries, but they lag behind lithium-ion batteries in energy density.

In 2021, the price of lithium carbonate—used as a lithium battery raw material—continued to rise, jumping from about 50,000 yuan per ton at the beginning of 2021 to a peak of 600,000 yuan per ton in November 2022, highlighting the cost advantage of sodium-ion batteries.

Since 2023, the lithium battery industry has fallen into excess capacity. With the supply-demand structure continuing to be imbalanced, the price of lithium carbonate has swung violently; at one point, the price dropped to around 60,000 yuan per ton. The cost advantage of sodium batteries no longer appears significant, the market enthusiasm for sodium batteries quickly cooled, and the sector returned to a frigid state.

Until last year, the sodium-ion battery sector rose steadily, and companies in the industry also took dense actions.

Image source: Tonghuashun

Since CATL (300750.SZ) released its “Sodium Xin” sodium-ion battery brand in April 2025, it has achieved deployments in areas including passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles.

In February this year, Changan Automobile (000625.SZ) and CATL jointly released the world’s first mass-produced passenger car equipped with “Sodium Xin” batteries, with an expected launch in mid-year.

At the recent 14th International Energy Storage Summit, CATL also displayed, for the first time, sodium-ion batteries dedicated to energy storage, which can cover large-scale energy storage from 2 hours to 8 hours as well as AIDC energy storage application scenarios. CATL plans to achieve commercial deployment within this year.

As a leading sodium battery company incubated through the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongke Hai Na has also made rapid progress in sodium batteries.

On March 31, the company held the 2026 Global Sodium Battery Industry Ecosystem Conference. It released a matrix of sodium battery products covering multiple scenarios, including launch/startup batteries, large-scale energy storage, and electric heavy-duty trucks, and also published operating data for Zhongke Hai Na’s “three-location commercialization tests” for electric heavy-duty trucks.

Zhongke Hai Na’s general manager Li Shujun, in interviews with media including Jiemian News, revealed that currently, Zhongke Hai Na has orders in hand for electric heavy-duty trucks already numbering several hundred units. This year, it will deliver about 200 units. In the energy storage area, it is negotiating orders of more than 500 MWh, and it is expected to deliver 300-400 MWh this year.

“More than anything, this is a story of capital market hype.” On April 7, regarding the sustained rise in the heat level of the sodium battery industry since last year, Zhang Jinhu, a senior research fellow at Xinlu Information, told Jiemian News. He pointed out that the industry does not care much about breakthroughs in any single technology, because the core problems sodium batteries truly face are cost reduction, technological iteration, and expanding application scenarios.

At present, since scale benefits have not yet formed, the theoretical cost advantage of sodium batteries has not materialized, and industrialized costs are still higher than those of lithium batteries.

Zhang Jinhu told Jiemian News that only if the sodium battery cost is on par with the cost of lithium iron phosphate batteries will sodium batteries have commercial significance. To achieve this condition, the price of lithium carbonate needs to stay above 300,000 yuan per ton for the long term. “At the current price of lithium carbonate, sodium batteries only have competitiveness in a small number of application fields.”

Zhang Jinhu noted that for sodium batteries to match the price of lithium iron phosphate batteries, on the one hand they need to rely on the scale expansion of the sodium battery industrial chain to reduce costs; on the other hand, high growth in energy storage will push up the price of lithium carbonate. He expects that price parity may be seen in the coming two years, tomorrow and the year after next.

Regarding the question of when sodium batteries would be relatively economical compared with lithium batteries, Zhongke Hai Na’s general manager Li Shujun recently told Jiemian News that both sodium batteries and lithium batteries have certain price ranges. Lithium batteries mainly fall between 0.3-0.5 yuan per watt-hour, while sodium batteries currently are between 0.5-0.7 yuan per watt-hour, depending on the application scenario.

Li Shujun believes that the cost of sodium-ion batteries is declining quickly, while lithium battery costs are rising somewhat. The two price ranges will achieve convergence and overlap. The time at which they converge has a clear landmark significance—it means that market connection has been formed, and market confidence will change accordingly. He expects that the convergence point will appear next year, and that the overlap will occur the year after.

In addition, views in the industry are not consistent regarding the market prospects for sodium batteries.

Zhang Jinhu believes sodium batteries will only be an auxiliary backup solution to lithium batteries. In the future, the main market will still be lithium iron phosphate and ternary batteries.

Based on his forecast, the global installed capacity of sodium batteries in 2026 will be less than 15 GWh, and it will also include segments such as start-stop applications, as well as lithium-sodium mixed batteries. Pure sodium applications will be even smaller in scale. In the same period, the total demand for energy storage is about 1100 GWh, and sodium batteries’ share is extremely low.

However, the SPIR report published by the Qidian Research Institute’s SPIR, in The 2026 Global Sodium Battery Industry White Paper, points out that the development of sodium batteries is a must-have option for China’s lithium battery industry. It can reduce reliance on imported lithium ore, address “bottleneck” risks, curb lithium prices, and solve sustainability issues for new energy battery development, given that lithium resources are limited while sodium is seemingly unlimited.

According to the White Paper, in 2026, sodium batteries’ share in the energy storage market will reach 50%; in the new energy vehicle market, 20%; and in the start-stop market, 15%.