CATL and HyperStrong Sign Record 60 GWh Sodium-Ion Deal, the Largest Commercial Test Yet of Lithium's Cheaper Alternative
The three-year agreement, equal to half of CATL's 2025 storage shipments, signals that sodium-ion has cleared its mass-production hurdles and is moving from pilot projects to grid-scale deployment.
Overview
CATL, the world’s largest battery maker, has signed a three-year strategic cooperation agreement with Beijing HyperStrong Technology to supply 60 gigawatt-hours of sodium-ion batteries for energy storage projects, according to Electrek. Announced on April 27, 2026, the deal is the largest sodium-ion battery order ever placed and represents roughly half of all energy storage batteries CATL shipped during the entirety of 2025.
The agreement marks a step-change for a chemistry that, as previously reported by The Machine Herald, only began moving into commercial-scale production earlier this year. It also dwarfs the first US grid pilot, which Peak Energy and RWE launched on the MISO network in March, by several orders of magnitude.
What We Know
The contract covers 60 GWh of cells delivered over three years, with collaboration spanning joint research, product development, and project execution, according to Interesting Engineering. It builds on a broader framework agreement signed in November 2025, in which HyperStrong committed to procuring 200 GWh of battery cells from CATL between 2026 and 2035.
CATL says it has resolved the manufacturing problems that have kept sodium-ion confined to pilot lines. The company stated that the partnership demonstrates it now possesses “large-scale delivery capabilities” for the technology, having solved key production issues around energy density, foaming during hard-carbon anode manufacturing, and moisture control, according to Electrek.
The new cells exceed 300 ampere-hours in capacity and reach an energy density of approximately 160 watt-hours per kilogram, with system energy efficiency of 97 percent and a rated cycle life of more than 15,000 charge cycles at 80 percent capacity retention, according to Interesting Engineering. The same source reports an operating temperature range of minus 40 degrees Celsius to 70 degrees Celsius, a span considerably wider than typical lithium iron phosphate cells.
A critical design choice, according to Electrek, is that CATL built the sodium-ion cells in the same form factor as its lithium-ion products, allowing storage integrators like HyperStrong to drop them into existing manufacturing and installation infrastructure with minimal retooling. The company has framed this as eliminating the largest single barrier to adoption.
Why It Matters
Sodium is roughly 1,000 times more abundant in the Earth’s crust than lithium and considerably cheaper to source, according to Electrek, which has long made sodium-ion an attractive alternative for stationary applications where weight matters less than installed cost per kilowatt-hour. The chemistry’s lower energy density has kept it from displacing lithium in long-range electric vehicles, but stationary grid storage is the natural first market.
Until now, the sticking point has been mass production. Earlier sodium-ion announcements from CATL and rivals such as BYD, HiNa Battery, and Natron Energy, as covered in The Machine Herald’s earlier reporting, have generally involved smaller pilot lines rather than multi-gigawatt commercial commitments. A 60 GWh, three-year contract from one of the world’s largest energy storage integrators is a different category of evidence: it implies CATL believes it can produce the cells at industrial scale, and it implies HyperStrong believes the chemistry can be deployed in revenue-generating projects without unacceptable risk.
The timing is also notable. Sodium-ion’s commercial case has historically depended on lithium prices staying high enough to offset its lower energy density. Lithium iron phosphate storage cell prices have softened over the past several years, narrowing the spread, but sodium-ion’s other advantages — wider operating temperature range, longer cycle life, and the cobalt- and nickel-free supply chain — remain structurally attractive for grid-scale duty cycles measured in decades rather than years.
What We Don’t Know
Neither company has disclosed the contract value, the specific projects in which the 60 GWh will be deployed, or the geographic split between domestic Chinese installations and HyperStrong’s growing international portfolio. The reporting does not specify a price per kilowatt-hour, so the precise economic case versus current LFP cells cannot be established from public disclosures.
It is also unclear how quickly CATL can ramp deliveries against this commitment. A 60 GWh, three-year run rate of 20 GWh per year is large by sodium-ion standards but small relative to CATL’s overall capacity. The company has not publicly detailed which factories will produce the cells or whether new dedicated lines are required.
Finally, the reporting does not address whether HyperStrong’s customers — typically utilities, independent power producers, and corporate offtakers — have signed firm purchase orders for sodium-ion-based systems, or whether HyperStrong is taking inventory risk on the new chemistry in anticipation of demand.
Outlook
For an industry that has spent the better part of a decade waiting for sodium-ion to clear the gap between laboratory promise and commercial reality, the CATL-HyperStrong agreement is a more concrete signal than any individual product launch. Whether sodium-ion ends up complementing lithium iron phosphate in long-duration storage or directly displacing it will depend on how the next 60 GWh actually performs in the field — and on whether competing manufacturers can match CATL’s manufacturing claims at similar scale.