"Intelligent Firewall": Rewriting Battery Safety Rules
Why do traditional batteries catch fire? The core lies in "thermal runaway" — after the internal temperature of the battery rises abnormally, the electrolyte decomposes, the separator shrinks, triggering a chain reaction that ultimately leads to fire and explosion. Previous industry solutions involved adding flame retardants, but this often came at the cost of sacrificing electrochemical performance.
Hu Yongsheng's team broke away from the traditional perception that "flame-retardant electrolytes equal safety". They constructed a trinity intelligent safety protection system of "thermal stability - interface stability - physical isolation".
"This is the first time in the world that complete thermal runaway blocking has been achieved in ampere-hour-level sodium-ion batteries," stated the Institute of Physics, CAS, noting that this achievement has reshaped people's understanding of battery safety. The ampere-hour level indicates that this technology has scaled up from milligram-level samples in the laboratory to an engineering size suitable for practical application, substantially crossing the threshold for industrialization.
Notably, the materials used in PNE are all mature industrial products, providing a high competitive edge for industrialization. This means that this technological breakthrough is not just confined to academic papers, but can quickly move towards mass production and commercialization.
Technology Implementation: The "Sodium Battery Moment" from Heavy-Duty Trucks to Passenger Vehicles
The breakthrough of PNE technology comes at a critical juncture in the industrialization of sodium batteries. Just one week before the release of the PNE results, Li Shujun, General Manager of Zhongke Haina, revealed at the 2026 Global Sodium Battery Industry Ecological Conference that the company has received hundreds of orders for sodium battery-powered heavy-duty trucks and will deliver around 200 units this year, marking the transition of sodium battery heavy-duty trucks from the technical verification phase to commercial promotion. In the energy storage sector, the company has pending orders of over 500 MWh, with an expected delivery of 300-400 MWh this year.
In the passenger vehicle sector, CATL's layout is even more iconic. In February this year, Changan Automobile and CATL jointly launched the world's first mass-produced passenger vehicle equipped with the "Sodium-New" battery, which is expected to hit the market in the middle of the year. The vehicle is equipped with the third-generation CTP technology, offering a pure electric range of over 400 kilometers. At -30°C, the vehicle's discharge power is nearly three times higher than that of a lithium iron phosphate model with the same battery capacity, and at -40°C, the battery capacity retention rate exceeds 90%.
Good news also keeps coming from the energy storage sector. On March 30, the first phase of a 2 GWh sodium-ion battery project invested by Bonax New Energy with 620 million yuan was completed and put into operation in Harbin, becoming the first gigawatt-level pure sodium-ion battery production line in Northeast China. Its products can maintain over 90% of their capacity at -40°C and can be widely used in energy storage power stations, low-speed electric vehicles and other fields.
Meanwhile, Envision Power launched its first sodium-ion cell dedicated to energy storage during the 14th Energy Storage International Summit and Exhibition. With a capacity of over 180 Ah, it has a cycle life of no less than 20,000 times and operates in a temperature range of -40°C to 70°C.
Sodium vs. Lithium: Complementarity or Substitution?
The current boom in sodium batteries is often oversimplified as a story of "sodium replacing lithium". However, the real logic of the industry is more complex. From the perspective of resource endowment, sodium's advantages are undeniable. Lithium accounts for only 0.006% of the Earth's crust, with 70% concentrated in the "Lithium Triangle" in South America; in contrast, sodium accounts for 2.75% of the Earth's crust, over 400 times that of lithium. Sodium is abundant in seawater and table salt, and China's self-sufficiency rate of sodium salt is close to 100%. This means that sodium batteries can fundamentally avoid the geopolitical risks and severe price fluctuations associated with lithium resources.
In terms of performance, the strengths and weaknesses of the two are clearly distinct: lithium iron phosphate still holds an advantage in energy density, while sodium batteries perform better in low-temperature performance, safety and fast-charging capability. The industry generally believes that the two will coexist for a long time, and sodium batteries will seize niche markets such as energy storage and low-temperature commercial vehicles with their wide temperature range and long service life.
Reprinted from JRJ.com