Top10Grid Ranks The 5 Top 10 Sodium-ion Battery Companies to Watch in 2026

Key Statistics

Top 5 Rankings

1. 1

   CATL

   Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited — better known as CATL — is the undisputed leader of the global sodium-ion battery race in 2026, by nearly every measure that counts: production scale, technology breadth, customer reach, and R&D investment. Founded in 2011 in Ningde, Fujian Province by Robin Zeng, CATL holds roughly 37 percent of the global lithium-ion market and has leveraged that manufacturing infrastructure to move sodium-ion from announcement to mass production faster than any competitor. The company's sodium-ion journey began in July 2021 with a first-generation cell at 160 Wh/kg. By April 2025, CATL launched the Naxtra product family for vehicles, delivering 175 Wh/kg — a figure competitive with mainstream LFP and sufficient to enable pure-electric ranges above 500 kilometers in A-class passenger cars. The April 2026 unveiling of a dedicated BESS cell added a second product line targeting grid storage: a 300+ Ah format rated at 160 Wh/kg with a cycle life exceeding 15,000 cycles at 80 percent capacity retention, operating from -40 to 70 degrees Celsius with 97 percent energy conversion efficiency. Four major manufacturing challenges — extreme moisture control during cell assembly, suppressing gas generation from hard carbon anodes, achieving reliable aluminum foil bonding, and mass-producing self-generating anodes — were all resolved by 2026, according to CATL's chief scientist. The company has invested nearly 10 billion yuan (approximately $1.45 billion) in sodium-ion R&D alone. Commercial partnerships are broad: Changan Automobile co-developed the first mass-production sodium-ion passenger vehicle unveiled in February 2026, while GAC Group's Aion UT Super variant and JD.com's logistics fleet are named deployment partners. CATL's chairman projects sodium-ion will ultimately capture 30 to 40 percent of the existing battery market globally.

2. 2

   BYD

   BYD Co., Ltd. — founded in 1995 in Shenzhen, Guangdong by Wang Chuanfu — is the world's second-largest battery manufacturer and the largest electric vehicle producer by units sold. Its sodium-ion program, while less publicly headlined than CATL's, is arguably more ambitious in raw manufacturing terms: the company broke ground on a 30 GWh sodium-ion gigafactory in Xining, Qinghai in early 2024, and the facility commenced operations in July 2025, operated as a joint venture with Huaihai Holding Group. A separate 30 GWh sodium facility in Xuzhou began construction in January 2024 as well. BYD's sodium-ion chemistry centers on NFPP — sodium iron fluorophosphate — a polyanion-based cathode that differs fundamentally from CATL's layered oxide approach. NFPP offers outstanding cycle stability and inherent thermal safety at some cost to energy density. BYD's current commercial sodium cells are rated at approximately 160 Wh/kg in blade-format architecture adapted from its lithium iron phosphate line. The headline figure from February 2026 is a cycle-life breakthrough: BYD announced its third-generation sodium-ion platform has crossed 10,000 cycles to 80 percent capacity retention while maintaining cold-weather performance down to -40 degrees Celsius — more than three times the cycle life of standard LFP EV batteries. For grid storage, BYD's MC Cube-SIB product targets 2-to-8-hour utility-scale applications at 1,200V nominal voltage. The Seagull (Dolphin Surf in Europe) entry-level EV platform is a likely candidate for sodium-ion integration as the technology matures. BYD's vertical integration — it manufactures its own cathode, anode, electrolyte, separator, and cells — positions it to absorb sodium-ion at scale without dependence on third-party component supply chains that constrain smaller producers.

3. 3

   HiNa Battery Technology

   HiNa Battery Technology Co., Ltd. occupies a unique position in the sodium-ion landscape: it is simultaneously one of the technology's oldest institutional champions and one of its most commercially active producers. Founded in 2017 in Beijing as a spin-off from the Institute of Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, HiNa traces its intellectual lineage to over 30 years of academic sodium-ion research. Its chairman Chen Liquan — dubbed 'the father of Chinese lithium batteries' — began exploring sodium-ion alternatives in the late 1980s and built the academic foundation that HiNa now commercializes. At 85 years old in 2026, Chen still oversees R&D alongside chairman Hu Yongsheng. HiNa achieved a landmark in 2022 by establishing the world's first 1,000-ton-scale sodium-ion cathode production line. Its current product portfolio spans two commercial lines: the HE240 (240 Ah, over 150 Wh/kg, 8,000 cycles at 0.5C rate, -40 to 60 degrees Celsius operating range) and the NE170 (170 Ah, over 100 Wh/kg, 10,000 cycles at 1C rate), both targeting energy storage applications. A third product — a fast-charging cell for heavy commercial vehicles capable of full charge in 20 minutes — was unveiled at an industry summit in March 2025. The company supplied and commissioned the world's first 100 MWh sodium-ion energy storage project, and a 50 MW station in Hubei Province became operational in July 2024. The National Energy Administration recognized HiNa among China's top 10 technological innovations in the energy industry for 2024. Current production stands at 1 GWh with a roadmap to 5 GWh. In January 2025, HiNa closed a venture round from Kecheng Capital and Dashu Changqing, adding to backing from Oceanpine Capital, Join Hands Capital, and China State-owned Enterprise Mixed Ownership Reform Fund. The company's 2022 valuation was reported at $786 million.

4. 4

   Hithium

   Xiamen Hithium Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd. — founded in 2019 in Xiamen, Fujian — is one of the fastest-growing energy storage companies in the world and the highest-valuation pure-play energy storage battery manufacturer currently active in sodium-ion development. The company completed Series C financing at a 30 billion yuan valuation ($4.2 billion), becoming Xiamen's first unicorn company, and has filed for a Hong Kong stock exchange listing in March 2025. Hithium's sodium-ion flagship is the N162Ah BESS cell, using a sodium iron ortho-pyrophosphate (NaxFePO4) polyanion cathode. The cell delivers a gravimetric energy density of at least 95 Wh/kg, volumetric energy density of 173 Wh/L, and a cycle life exceeding 20,000 cycles — the highest cycle-life figure published by any sodium-ion manufacturer in mass-scale production. The cell passed China's national assessment in October 2024 and received UN38.3 certification, with GWh-scale production commencing in Q4 2025. Hithium's strategic positioning is explicitly oriented toward the AI data center storage boom. The company's December 2025 launch of the Infinity Power Solutions lineup — the world's first lithium-sodium hybrid storage solution for AI data centers — combines an 8-hour lithium long-duration cell with a 1-hour sodium fast-response cell in a single integrated system. Commercial deliveries of the 6.9 MW / 55.2 MWh system are scheduled for Q4 2026. In August 2025, Hithium signed a global cooperation agreement with Samsung C&T and surpassed 100 GWh of cumulative battery shipments. Its Texas facility (Mesquite, 10 GWh module and system assembly) achieved mass production and shipment in August 2025, giving Hithium genuine US commercial footprint.

5. 5

   Faradion (Reliance New Energy)

   Faradion Limited was founded in 2011 in Sheffield, United Kingdom — making it one of the earliest dedicated sodium-ion battery companies anywhere in the world. The founding team drew on academic research from the University of Sheffield and St Andrews, focusing on layered transition metal oxide cathodes — specifically a nickel-manganese-magnesium-titanium oxide formulation — paired with hard carbon anodes. This chemistry delivers current commercial cells rated at 160 Wh/kg in 32 Ah pouch format with over 4,000 cycles to 80 percent capacity retention. Reliance Industries, the Indian conglomerate led by Mukesh Ambani, announced its acquisition of Faradion in January 2022, completing the transaction to 100 percent ownership in October 2024, at a total valuation of approximately $136 million with an additional $34 million committed as growth capital. Reliance New Energy's strategic rationale is clear: building a sodium-ion gigafactory in Jamnagar, India — the site of Reliance's enormous existing industrial complex — to supply sodium-ion cells to Indian EV manufacturers and grid storage projects at a time when India is aggressively reducing dependence on Chinese battery imports. Faradion's next-generation cell design, under development in Sheffield, targets energy density exceeding 190 Wh/kg — which would make it the highest-energy-density sodium-ion commercial cell announced by any Western producer. The technology's layered oxide cathode is not cobalt-free in all variants, but Faradion's roadmap moves toward reduced critical mineral content. With Reliance's financial backing, manufacturing scale, and India's enormous EV market at its disposal, Faradion's role as the technology licensor for a gigawatt-scale Indian sodium-ion industry represents a long-term competitive position that no other Western sodium startup currently possesses.

View the full ranking at https://top10grid.com/top-10-sodium-ion-battery-companies-2026