Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) has introduced Tener Sodium, the industry’s first field-validated sodium battery energy storage system, at its 2026 energy storage new product event. The new solution features a fully modular design, delivering over 30 megawatt-hours of capacity per system, with each module weighing approximately 42 tons. Production is set to begin in China this September, with the company targeting 1 gigawatt-hour of deliveries domestically by the end of 2026. Global commercial roll-out will follow from June 2027.
Tener Sodium is engineered to support storage durations ranging from one to eight hours, enabling flexible configuration to match specific project requirements. A first-of-its-kind Bi-DC dual-direction voltage control architecture boosts round-trip efficiency by nearly two percent, while decoupling energy capacity from power output simplifies project deployment and scaling.
Operational stability is a core focus of the system. CATL reports an ultra-long cycle life of up to 15,000 cycles at 25°C, maintaining 70% state of health—equivalent to a 25- to 30-year service life. The system also delivers more than 10,000 cycles at 45°C and retains over 92% of capacity at –20°C. Enhanced safety measures, including fire and explosion suppression under extreme conditions, have been integrated into the design.
To ensure high availability, the system incorporates a millisecond-level self-healing mechanism that can locate and isolate faults within 200 milliseconds and restore unaffected cells in 150 milliseconds, providing station-level redundancy without significant cost increases. Mechanical dimensions are fully compatible with conventional lithium-ion systems, allowing seamless facility upgrades and hybrid deployments.
Tener Sodium follows CATL’s earlier energy storage innovations, including its zero-degradation Tener system launched in April 2024 and the 9 megawatt-hour Tener Stack introduced in May 2025.
The announcement comes amid rapid growth in the sodium-ion battery sector; CATL last month signed a three-year supply agreement for 60 gigawatt-hours with a major energy storage integrator and committed 5 billion yuan to establish 40 gigawatt-hours of sodium-ion capacity in Fujian. As of late 2025, the company had invested nearly 10 billion yuan in sodium-battery research and development. CATL’s founder and chairman has forecast that low-cost sodium-ion batteries could capture 30% to 40% of the global battery market over time.
Source: CNEV Post
