Top 10 Sodium-ion Battery Companies to Watch in 2026

Hithium, founded in 2019, has become one of the highest-valued pure-play energy storage battery makers pursuing sodium-ion technology, backed by significant venture funding. Its sodium-ion BESS cells use an iron-phosphate-based cathode chemistry, trading off somewhat lower energy density for what the company says is an exceptionally long cycle life — among the highest claimed for mass-produced sodium-ion cells. Hithium says it has secured key safety certifications and is scaling toward gigawatt-hour production. The company has also introduced a hybrid lithium-sodium energy storage system aimed at AI data center backup power, pairing the fast-response characteristics of lithium with the safety and cost profile of sodium-ion. International partnerships and a US manufacturing footprint, including a facility in Texas, support Hithium's push into the American market.

Faradion has one of the oldest claims on this list, and it matters: founded in the UK in 2011, it helped pioneer the layered oxide cathode paired with hard-carbon anodes that much of the industry now builds on, and its commercial cells deliver around 160 Wh/kg with cycle life reported up to roughly 1,000 cycles at 80% depth of discharge. What changed its trajectory was Reliance Industries acquiring it for roughly $135 million in 2022, with additional growth funding committed since — Reliance has signaled plans for a sodium-ion gigafactory in India to cut the country's reliance on Chinese imports, and Faradion's technology-licensing role gives it a supply-chain position that few other Western sodium-ion startups currently occupy.

Peak Energy is the one to know if you're tracking sodium-ion in the US specifically — it has said it operates one of the country's first large-scale sodium-ion storage systems, built on an iron-phosphate-based cathode chemistry the company says is inherently resistant to thermal runaway, a major driver of battery storage failures generally. Peak Energy's grid-scale product line targets multi-megawatt-hour storage with high round-trip efficiency across a wide operating temperature range, and the company has announced a deployment with utility partner RWE. Its roadmap calls for scaling production to multiple gigawatt-hours over the next several years as it builds out US manufacturing capacity.

Tiamat Energy's NASICON cathode cells are built for very high charge and discharge rates, positioning them among the faster-charging sodium-ion options for power tools, UPS, and data center applications, with the company citing charge times as fast as five minutes for some formats. Current-generation cells deliver roughly 100 to 120 Wh/kg with cycle life exceeding 5,000 cycles, and the company is targeting higher energy density in future generations. Founded in 2017 in Amiens, France, as a spin-off from the CNRS research agency, the company has raised venture funding from investors including Stellantis and Arkema. Tiamat has outlined plans for a multi-gigawatt-hour-scale gigafactory later in the decade as it scales toward larger production volumes.

Altris makes its case on raw material simplicity: its Prussian white cathode is built primarily from iron and abundant, non-critical materials — no cobalt, nickel, or manganese — while targeting energy density competitive with LFP chemistry around 160 Wh/kg. Founded in Uppsala in 2017 as a spin-off from Uppsala University's battery research center, the company has raised tens of millions of dollars in funding, including investment from Clarios, and its Sandviken facility produces cathode material at a multi-thousand-ton annual scale. A partnership with Ligna Energy has explored ultrathin sodium-ion cells for wireless electronics, a niche few others in the field are chasing. Northvolt had reportedly explored integrating Altris's technology before Northvolt's 2024 financial restructuring.

Envision is playing a different game than the pure-play startups on this list — it has the balance sheet of a major global energy company to match its ambition. Envision has begun production of sodium-ion cells aimed at grid-scale and backup power applications, backed by substantial project financing that lets it pursue fast-growing markets like AI data center backup power more aggressively than smaller, capital-constrained rivals. The company says its cells offer long cycle life and a wide operating temperature range suited to extreme environments where lithium-ion batteries tend to degrade fastest, and it pairs its hardware with an adaptive energy management software layer — a capability few pure battery makers in this space can match.

Sodion's target market is unglamorous but enormous: India's two-wheeler segment sells 20 million units a year at prices under $2,000, and Sodion has built specifically for it. Its oxide-based cells deliver 120 to 140 Wh/kg at the pack level and outperform the average lithium-ion pack on thermal tolerance in tropical heat, while a cell-to-pack design that eliminates modules entirely undercuts even Altris's modular approach on cost for urban ranges of 80 to 150 km. Piloted at 100 MWh in Bengaluru and backed by India's PLI incentives plus agreements with three OEMs, Sodion has a home-market advantage that Tiamat's European focus can't reach.