Salt batteries are about to shake up EVs and grid storage
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- Changan's Nevo AO6 will be the first mass-produced EV with a sodium-ion battery, launching later this year with a new-generation CATL cell demonstrated at -32°C in northern China, where a test car kept running after a tyre burst at 95 km/h.
- CATL claims its sodium-ion battery reaches 175 Wh/kg energy density — matching the lithium-iron-phosphate cells in low-cost models from Tesla and others — and retains 90% capacity at -40°C; when sawed in half at the launch demo, it didn't catch fire and kept powering a lightbulb.
- A study by Moritz Schütte at Aachen University found Hina's sodium-ion battery rivals Tesla's lithium-ion cells on most parameters, though at equivalent capacity it remains roughly a third heavier than lithium.
- General Motors has partnered with Peak Energy to build sodium-ion grid storage, while Peak Energy is also selling the batteries to data centres and Eleven Energy has begun installing sodium-ion home batteries in the UK.
- Sodium-ion cells swap lithium for salt — cheaper and more abundant — but carry a weight penalty and lower energy density; they run cooler, bond less with electrolyte in the cold, and pose less fire risk than lithium batteries.
- Lithium processing is dominated by China, energy-intensive, and exposed to geopolitical disruption including potential conflict over Taiwan — conditions Maria Crespo-Ribadeneyra at Queen Mary University of London says sodium is helping prove "a world beyond lithium is possible."
Why it matters: CATL's 175 Wh/kg sodium-ion cell inside a mass-produced Changan sedan signals salt-based batteries have crossed the performance bar for general EVs — not just stationary grid storage. With lithium supply chains concentrated in China and vulnerable to Taiwan-related disruption, sodium's cheaper inputs and thermal stability give EV makers, cold-climate fleets, and home-storage buyers a viable alternative whose cost gap with lithium is closing fast.
