CATL CEO Robin sees sodium-ion batteries as a better bet, potentially replacing up to half of the market for LiFePO4 batteries that CATL now dominate

On November 7, Robin Zeng, Chairman and CEO of CATL, accepted an exclusive interview with Reuters. Robin announced several future development priorities of the company:

① The scale of the "zero-carbon power grid" business is 10 times that of the electric vehicle battery business. CATL aims to establish an independent energy system that is large enough to power large mining complexes, data centers or entire cities. The company's goal is to go beyond the field of energy storage and enter the field of power generation.

② Provide a ready-made electric vehicle platform and integrate long-range batteries into the chassis of the car. Customers only need to design the interior and exterior to launch customized electric vehicles with a range of more than 800 kilometers. The battery is integrated with the chassis to protect the battery from damage in accidents. (The project code is "Rock")

③ If the US President-elect Trump opens the door to Chinese companies investing in the electric vehicle supply chain in the United States, CATL will consider building a factory in the United States. It is worth noting that in this interview, Robin downplayed the potential of solid-state batteries as the next game-changing technology, while emphasizing the application potential of sodium-ion batteries.

Solid-state batteries are seen as the next generation of revolutionary technology. CATL currently has more than 20,000 R&D personnel, of which 1,000 are dedicated to the research and development of solid-state batteries. Robin expects that the company will start to launch solid-state batteries on a small scale in 2027. However, Robin believes that sodium-ion batteries have greater application potential and may replace more than half of the lithium iron phosphate battery market share in the future.

Robin is optimistic about the underlying logic of sodium ion battery.

Sodium resources are abundant and cheap, and its electrochemical properties may reduce the risk of fire. At present, CATL has launched sodium-lithium hybrid batteries for plug-in and extended-range hybrid vehicles, and A00-class cars equipped with CATL sodium-ion batteries have also been put on the market.

Previously, Robin said that it is expected that CATL's second-generation sodium-ion batteries will replace 20% to 30% of lithium iron phosphate batteries in small cars or short-range vehicles in the initial stage. With the application of CATL's sodium-ion battery technology in Freevoy Super Hybrid Battery, sodium-ion batteries will be used in models other than A00-class, further expanding its share in the field of new energy vehicles.

Combined with the application potential of sodium-ion batteries in the field of energy storage, Robin's expectations for sodium-ion batteries have also increased from replacing 20%-30% of lithium iron phosphate to replacing 50%. In the A00-class car market, the A00-class pure electric vehicle market continued to shrink from 2022 to 2023, but its sales soared in 2024. According to the data from the China Passenger Car Association, in the first three quarters of this year, the sales volume of micro pure electric vehicles (A00 class) reached 757,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 48%, and is expected to reach 1 million units for the whole year. The number of players in the A00 class track has not decreased in 2024, and the new products launched by manufacturers have been upgraded. With the improvement of product strength, the stereotypes of micro cars such as low quality and low endurance are being overturned. The increase in product competitiveness makes A00 class cars more cost-effective, which has also directly promoted the recovery of the A00 class market.

Currently, A0/A00-class models equipped with CATL sodium-ion batteries are on sale: From January to September 2024, the installed capacity of sodium-ion power batteries exceeded 3.7MWh, of which 90 Chery QQ Ice Creams equipped by CATL were sold with an installed capacity of 1.27MWh. This model is an A00-class pure electric sedan, 2980mm long, 1496mm wide, 1637mm high, and has a range of 170 kilometers. In the hybrid vehicle market, from January to September 2024, China's sales of plug-in and extended-range hybrid vehicles reached 3.328 million units, a year-on-year increase of 84.2%, while the relative increase in pure electric vehicles was only 11.6%. The proportion of hybrid vehicle sales in new energy vehicle sales has also increased to 40%.

From January to September 2024, CATL's installed capacity of hybrid passenger vehicle batteries was 30.7GWh, and it is expected to exceed 40GWh throughout the year. CATL pioneered the lithium-sodium AB battery system integration technology, integrating sodium batteries and lithium batteries into the same battery pack. Although CATL did not disclose the specific ratio of lithium/sodium batteries, according to the AB battery system exhibited at the auto show, the number of sodium batteries accounted for about 20%.

At present, CATL has deployed in R&D, patents, products, applications, and production capacity.

In terms of R&D, on March 14 this year, the environmental impact assessment of the "Construction of CATL Innovation Laboratory (Phase I) Expansion Phase I Project" was approved. The total investment of the project is 120 million yuan, and the construction site is located in the Dongqiao Economic and Technological Development Zone of Ningde City. The experiments carried out in the project include the preparation of sodium-electric laminated cells and the synthesis of sodium-electric layered oxides. The research direction of the first phase of the project focuses on the research and development of next-generation batteries such as metal lithium batteries, all-solid-state batteries, and sodium-ion batteries.

In terms of PATENTS, as of now, CATL has more than 120 invention patents in the field of sodium-ion batteries, involving positive electrode materials, positive electrode sheets, negative electrode sheets, electrolytes, electrolytes, current collectors, sodium-ion battery cells, modules, battery packs, and other contents.

In terms of PRODUCTS, in July 2021, CATL released the first generation of sodium-ion batteries, with a single cell energy density of up to 160Wh/kg; charging at room temperature for 15 minutes, the power can reach more than 80%; in a low-temperature environment of -20°C, it also has a discharge retention rate of more than 90%; the system integration efficiency can reach more than 80%; the thermal stability far exceeds the national mandatory safety requirements, not only the cost is lower, but the industrial chain will also be independently controllable.

In June this year, Robin revealed the latest progress and two important time nodes of the company's sodium-ion battery project. According to him, the new generation of sodium-ion batteries that CATL is accelerating the development of is expected to be launched the following year and is planned to be mass-produced in 2027.

The performance of this new battery in low-temperature environments will be significantly improved, and combined with a high-density battery pack design, it can effectively solve the performance bottleneck of pure electric vehicles in cold conditions.

Although the price of the new battery may be higher than that of existing lithium batteries, its excellent performance and safety will provide consumers with more choices. In addition, if technology is used as an evaluation system (scoring 1-10), CATL's sodium-ion battery project is already at a level of 7.

In terms of capacity construction, in April 2022, the fifth phase of the Fuding Times new power battery production base project was announced. The construction site is located in Qianqi Town, Fuding City, Ningde City. The project relies on the factory buildings and supporting facilities of the first and fourth phases of the project to build a sodium-ion battery production line with a total capacity of 25GWh of sodium-ion batteries.

CATL might bring out breaking news on 15th May 2025 in Shenzhen Battery Exhibition, expect the sodium battery commercialization. --Jerry Wan