Sodium batteries have reached a node of industrialization explosion!

In 2025, sodium batteries are breaking the industry misconception of small market capacity and slow industrialization process, and are ushering in a critical moment of industrialization explosion.

Recently, the prices of some raw materials for lithium batteries have been on the rise, causing concerns in the industry; At the same time, sodium batteries have shown a good trend of blooming in various fields such as electric vehicles, construction vehicles, two wheeled electric vehicles, as well as car start stop and energy storage, and their cost-effectiveness continues to improve, approaching that of lithium iron phosphate batteries . At present, sodium batteries are moving from small-scale demonstrations to the market hinterland, and the competition between them and lithium batteries is not only a competition in terms of battery energy density, cost, and other dimensions, but also a game related to the resilience of the battery industry, scene adaptation, and energy security.



Recently, whether it is ternary lithium or lithium iron phosphate batteries, the fluctuation of upstream material prices has attracted widespread attention in the industry. Among them, the price of cobalt sulfate has surged in this round, mainly due to the announcement by the world's largest cobalt supplier, Congo (Kinshasa), to suspend its cobalt exports for four months starting from February 22. Coupled with reports of tense local situations, this has led to a chain reaction in the market.

According to reports, the Democratic Republic of Congo is currently considering developing long-term policies to extract more value from cobalt mining and processing, and to prevent a large influx of stockpiled cobalt into the market after the ban is lifted, which could impact prices. The Economic Situation Committee of the Democratic Republic of Congo recently proposed measures to strengthen the temporary ban on cobalt exports, including cooperation with Indonesia, the second largest supplier of cobalt, to "better control" the supply and prices of cobalt in the global market. Against the backdrop of controlling cobalt supply, it has also driven up nickel prices in the market, resulting in higher costs for downstream production of ternary lithium and lithium cobalt oxide batteries.

In addition, driven by market demand and product iteration, the price of lithium iron phosphate materials in this round shows a differentiated trend, with higher end products experiencing greater price increases. Since the beginning of this year, high-voltage dense lithium iron phosphate materials, as a powerful tool to improve the energy density of lithium iron phosphate batteries, have been increasingly sought after by the market. However, due to complex processes such as "secondary sintering" and rising processing costs, the price of the fourth generation product, high-voltage dense lithium iron phosphate, has risen. According to industry insiders, several leading domestic battery companies have locked in large orders for high-voltage lithium iron phosphate materials. "The fourth generation lithium iron phosphate production line of a certain leading material company is all smoking dry." It is estimated that the crustal abundance of sodium resources (2.74%) is 420 times that of lithium (0.0065%), and does not require rare and precious metals such as cobalt and nickel, as well as copper foil current collectors. Overall, if cobalt mines continue to reduce production in the long term, there is a possibility of a surge in cobalt prices, which also demonstrates the advantage of sodium batteries in addressing the potential bottleneck problem of rare and precious metals; At the same time, although the cost of mid to low end lithium iron phosphate batteries is relatively low, the popularity of high-voltage dense products has increased material demand, exacerbating the contradiction between material supply and demand. With the production capacity of leading material companies tilting towards high-end products, the marginal cost advantage of lithium iron phosphate batteries has narrowed, which also provides space and time for sodium batteries to expand into the mid to low end market.

It can be seen that although lithium batteries are still the absolute mainstay of the battery industry, sodium batteries have accelerated their penetration into high-temperature, high-altitude, high-power and other application markets due to their advantages such as high safety, strong low-temperature performance, and adaptability to high voltage/ultra fast charging . The timing of their industrialization "takeoff" depends on the results of increasing efficiency and reducing costs of sodium batteries , further improving their cost-effectiveness.