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Sodium-ion batteries: Economics

How cheap lithium wiped out sodium's price lead

How cheap lithium wiped out sodium's price lead What this tab covers Economics and financial structure: capital versus operating cost, levelised cost of storage, and how the asset earns money.

Sodium-ion was expected to undercut LFP, but the collapse in lithium prices erased its cost lead; it now costs roughly the same or more per kWh and needs scale to win.

Capex versus opex

Mixed

IRENA reports 2022 sodium-ion cells at USD 80 to 105/kWh and packs at USD 90 to 125/kWh, against lithium-ion cells at USD 52 to 81/kWh and packs at USD 75 to 104/kWh in April 2024. The EESC study gives 2025 cell costs of EUR 68 to 89/kWh for sodium against EUR 40 to 68/kWh for LFP (EUR 44 to 68 in another section of the same study). BloombergNEF put LFP packs at USD 81/kWh in 2025. Manufacturers hope to reach about USD 40/kWh per cell at scale, and some analysts say sodium keeps a cost edge only if lithium carbonate stays above about USD 20,000 a tonne. A CATL storage executive said in June 2026 that the company expects sodium-ion cell cost to match LFP by the end of 2026 and system cost by 2027, with first grid-system deliveries in China from September 2026 and a 1 GWh shipment target for the year (company claims); the IEA's 2024 view was that production costs could be up to 30% below LFP. Wanhua Chemical, a hard carbon supplier, expects anode material costs to fall from CNY 60,000 to 70,000 a tonne in 2024 to CNY 35,000 to 40,000 in 2026.1348910

Sodium-ion cell cost (2025, EESC) EUR 68-89/kWh3 LFP cell cost (2025, EESC) EUR 40-68/kWh3 Target cell cost at scale about USD 40/kWh1 Lithium carbonate price threshold for sodium advantage about USD 20,000/t1 CATL target for cell cost parity with LFP (company claim) end of 2026 (system parity 2027)8 IEA estimate of potential production cost advantage over LFP (2024) up to 30% lower9

Levelised cost of storage

Mixed

No independent LCOS for grid sodium-ion has been published. With similar efficiency and claimed cycle life to LFP but higher cell cost today, LCOS is likely to be at or slightly above LFP's, which Ember puts at about USD 65/MWh outside China and the US. If CATL reaches its 2027 system-cost parity target, lower cooling and fire-protection needs could put sodium-ion slightly below LFP.68

LFP LCOS benchmark outside China and US (2025) about USD 65/MWh6

Revenue stack and market participation

Mixed

On the grid sodium-ion earns the same arbitrage, capacity and frequency revenues as LFP. Sodium-based batteries (a broader group than sodium-ion alone) held about 2% of battery storage deployments in 2023. Its niche strengths are cold climates, sites where fire risk limits LFP, two- and three-wheelers, and replacing lead-acid in starter and backup batteries; China, India and South-East Asia account for about 80% of global two- and three-wheeler sales.13

Sodium-based share of battery storage deployments (2023) about 2%3 China, India and SE Asia share of two- and three-wheeler sales (2024) about 80%1

Sources

  1. Sodium-ion batteries: Technology brief IRENA, 2025
  2. Energy resilience of households in a prepared union: the potential of a sodium battery-based solution (study by Milieu, WSP and CE Delft) European Economic and Social Committee, 2026
  3. Lithium-Ion Battery Pack Prices Fall to $108 per Kilowatt-Hour, Despite Rising Metal Prices BloombergNEF, 2025
  4. Batteries now cheap enough to deliver solar when it is needed Ember, 2025
  5. Sodium-ion batteries to reach cost parity with lithium by late 2026, report says (company statements) CarNewsChina (citing National Business Daily), 2026
  6. Batteries and Secure Energy Transitions: Executive summary International Energy Agency, 2024
  7. CATL pushes sodium energy storage to market with Tener Sodium launch (company claims) CnEVPost, 2026