Energy · 2023

Sodium-ion battery

Abundant sodium replaces lithium in cheap, cold-tolerant cells.

CATL unveiled its first sodium-ion cell in 2021, and the first mass-produced cars with sodium-ion packs reached Chinese buyers in 2023. Using no lithium, cobalt or nickel, the chemistry targets storage and small EVs.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

Lithium iron phosphate battery 1996

What it led to 2

Mass-production sodium-ion car 2026
Cheap long-duration grid storage ~2032

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Lithium-ion battery cell price Latest: 78 $/kWh (2024 USD) (2024) Source: Our World in Data

World lithium production Latest: 292k tonnes (2025) Source: Our World in Data

Cost of memory and storage Latest: Memory: 1.09k $/TB (2023) Source: Our World in Data