The sodium-ion battery (NIB or SIB) is a type of rechargeable battery that uses sodium ions (Na+) as its charge carriers. Its working principle and cell construction in some case are similar to those of lithium-ion battery (LIB) types, but replace lithium with sodium. SIBs received academic and commercial interest in the 2010s and 2020s, largely due to the uneven geographic distribution, high environmental impact and high cost of many of the materials required for lithium-ion batteries. Chief among these are lithium, cobalt, copper and nickel, which are not strictly required for many types of sodium-ion batteries.
[1] The largest advantage of sodium-ion batteries is the natural abundance of sodium.
[2] Challenges to adoption of SIBs include low energy density and insufficient charge-discharge cycles.
[3] The technology is not mentioned in a United States Energy Information Administration report on battery storage technologies from 2021.
[4] and electric vehicles using sodium-ion batteries are not commercially available. However CATL, the world's biggest battery manufacturer, announced in 2022 the start of mass production of SIBs. In February 2023, the Chinese HiNa Battery Technology Co., Ltd. placed a 140 Wh/kg sodium-ion battery in an electric test car for the first time
[5] and energy storage manufacturer Pylontech obtained the first sodium-ion battery certificate by TÜV Rheinland.