Sodium-ion batteries work much like lithium-ion batteries, but use sodium instead of lithium. That change allows material combinations that avoid lithium and, depending on the design, reduce the use of copper, nickel, cobalt and graphite.

The result is a credible route to lower costs, but not an immediate guarantee. In China, sodium-ion cells were selling for about 0.6 yuan per watt-hour in March 2026, compared with roughly 0.4 yuan for lithium-ion cells. These were reported selling prices, not universal manufacturing costs. Sodium-ion remained more expensive because its supply chain and production base were less mature.

The lithium-price surge of 2021 and 2022 showed the risks of relying heavily on one core material. Prices later declined, but their volatility reinforced interest in a second chemistry that could protect producers from future supply constraints.

Sodium is widely distributed and far more abundant. The International Renewable Energy Agency estimates that it is approximately 1,000 times more abundant than lithium in Earth’s crust and 60,000 times more abundant in the oceans. Manufacturers generally obtain it from soda ash, or sodium carbonate, an established industrial commodity.

Sodium itself is not necessarily the largest source of savings in a battery. Its broader value is that it removes lithium from the cell and creates more options for using abundant, lower-cost materials elsewhere.

Some sodium-ion cathodes rely heavily on iron and manganese, which are generally less expensive and more widely available than nickel and cobalt. Sodium-ion batteries also use hard carbon instead of the graphite normally found in lithium-ion anodes, while aluminum can replace copper in the anode current collector.

These advantages depend on the chemistry. Layered-oxide cathodes may still contain nickel, manganese, copper or small quantities of cobalt. Polyanionic and Prussian blue analogue cathodes can have lower critical-mineral intensity, although some use manganese or vanadium. Sodium-ion should therefore be viewed as a family of chemistries rather than a single standardized product.

Most commercial or near-commercial cells contain:

Hard carbon remains a cost uncertainty. Its feedstocks can be inexpensive, but battery-grade production requires controlled carbonization, purification and pore engineering. Sodium-ion materials also lack lithium-ion’s scale and supplier competition. Lower-cost ingredients will not produce cheaper cells without consistent, high-yield manufacturing.

Conventional lithium-ion cells normally use aluminum foil at the cathode and copper foil at the anode. Copper is required on the anode side because lithium can alloy with aluminum at low voltage, damaging the current collector.

Sodium does not present the same constraint, so sodium-ion cells can use aluminum foil on both electrodes. Because aluminum is lighter and generally less expensive than copper, this substitution can reduce current-collector cost and mass while limiting exposure to copper-price volatility. It does not make the entire battery lighter, however, because sodium-ion’s lower energy density may require a larger cell or pack for the same energy capacity.

Sodium-ion and lithium-ion cells use many of the same manufacturing stages, including slurry mixing, electrode coating, calendering, slitting, stacking or winding, electrolyte filling, sealing, formation and testing. Producers could therefore adapt substantial portions of existing lithium-ion equipment.

The change is not a simple material substitution. Recipes, moisture limits, coating conditions, formation protocols and quality controls must change. CATL said it had to address moisture, hard-carbon gas generation and aluminum-foil adhesion before preparing Naxtra for large-scale production.

Sodium ions are larger and heavier than lithium ions, and today’s sodium-ion cells generally store less energy per kilogram. The International Energy Agency reports that leading sodium-ion cells reach about 175 watt-hours per kilogram, compared with up to 205 Wh/kg for LFP and 255 Wh/kg for nickel-manganese-cobalt cells.

Lower energy density increases the amount of electrode material, foil, separator, casing and pack structure needed to provide a given amount of energy. This can offset some raw-material savings and makes sodium-ion less attractive for long-range vehicles, aviation and portable electronics.

Mature lithium iron phosphate batteries are an especially difficult benchmark. LFP already avoids nickel and cobalt, benefits from enormous production scale and continues to improve. A 2025 Nature Energy analysis found that manufacturing scale alone would not guarantee sodium-ion cost leadership. Raising energy density, improving cell design and limiting dependence on nickel are among the most important routes to competitiveness.

Stationary storage is the clearest initial market because weight and space are less important. Other possibilities include data-center backup power, starter batteries, industrial equipment, two- and three-wheelers, short-range vehicles and cold-region fleets.

Cold-weather performance could provide an advantage in selected markets, but performance figures vary by product. CATL claims that its Naxtra passenger-vehicle cell retains more than 90% of capacity at minus 40 degrees Celsius. That is a claim for CATL’s design, not a standard capability of every sodium-ion battery. Hybrid packs that combine sodium-ion and lithium-ion cells could use sodium-ion for cold-weather power while preserving lithium-ion’s higher energy density.

Several manufacturers have moved beyond laboratory research, although their projects are at different stages:

Sodium-ion producers must raise energy density without relying on costly metals, improve hard-carbon consistency and establish dependable supplies of cathode materials and sodium electrolyte salts. Factories must demonstrate high yields, long service life and consistent quality at gigawatt-hour scale.

Customers will also require safety certification, warranties, field-performance data, recycling systems and bankable supply agreements. Geographic diversification remains another challenge. The IEA says nearly all existing sodium-ion cell-manufacturing capacity is in China, which also represents more than 95% of installed and announced capacity for 2030. Sodium may be abundant worldwide, but the industrial supply chain is still highly concentrated.

Sodium-ion batteries could lower manufacturing costs by replacing lithium with abundant sodium, using lower-cost cathode materials in some designs and substituting aluminum for copper at the anode current collector. Their similarity to lithium-ion cells may also allow manufacturers to adapt existing production assets rather than develop an entirely new manufacturing system.

The advantage remains conditional. Sodium-ion cells currently face lower energy density, immature supply chains and intense competition from highly optimized LFP batteries. They are therefore more likely to complement lithium-ion batteries in stationary storage, cold climates and cost-sensitive mobility than replace them across every application.