Introduction For years, sodium-ion batteries were discussed mainly as a promising alternative to lithium-ion technology. In 2026, that conversation is changing. The industry is increasingly moving from laboratory development toward commercial production and GWh-scale deployment. CATL announced in April that its Naxtra sodium-ion battery had reached GWh-scale industrialization and is scheduled for full-scale mass production by the end of 2026. The company specifically identified hard-carbon gas generation as one of the manufacturing challenges it had to address during scale-up. In energy storage, commercialization is moving even faster. CATL announced in June that sodium-ion production lines for energy storage were commissioned