Applications & Installations

A closer look at CATL’s new sodium-ion battery

The battery manufacturing heavyweight presented its latest sodium-ion products at ESIE 2026 earlier this month, expanding its push into grid-scale storage, AI data centers, and long-life applications.
Vincent Shaw
By
Vincent Shaw
Image: CATL

From ESS News

CATL has unveiled a new sodium-ion battery for energy storage at ESIE 2026 in Beijing, expanding its sodium-ion lineup beyond passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and auxiliary power into utility-scale and commercial storage.

The company presented the product on April 1 under the theme “sodium and lithium dual stars creating full-scenario energy storage solutions.” According to a spokesman of the company, CATL positioned the new product as the world’s first platform-based sodium-ion battery designed specifically for energy storage. The battery is expected to enter commercial deployment within 2026.

The main design feature is platform compatibility with CATL’s existing 587 Ah lithium storage cell. The sodium-ion battery uses the same enclosure dimensions, which CATL says will allow a high degree of compatibility in system design, manufacturing lines, and supply chains, helping reduce switching costs for customers. The cell is described as a 300+ Ah large-format product with energy density of about 160 Wh/kg, system energy conversion efficiency of 97%, cycle life of more than 15,000 cycles at 80% capacity retention, and an operating temperature range of -40 C to 70 C.

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Comments

Bruce Arkwright
Apr 20, 2026

The people in the north desperately need sodium batteries for everything, the people closer to the equator can still use lithium batteries…

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Paul Alexander Govan
Apr 20, 2026

But CATL et al still not saying that dual batt-packs – sodium + lithium – will be offered.The sodium ion section(perhaps 20% of the combi-pack would be used in very cold or hot weather, hot/cold ambient temperatures and high-stress high load conditions to prevent thermal runaway .

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