CATL is the world’s largest EV battery manufacturer, and it has announced an all-new battery chemistry. This battery costs 10% of what current lithium-ion units cost. It may deteriorate so slowly that it will keep 85% of its charging capacity after driving 3.6 million miles. And it’s made of salt. It’s not a prototype, but a real unit currently being manufactured for six major Chinese automakers’ 2026 models.

Many automakers and battery suppliers have been researching sodium-ion batteries as a potential replacement for lithium-ion. Why? Salt is one of the most plentiful elements on the planet. “Mining” it from seawater leaves you with clean drinking water. So sodium-ion battery production, at scale, solves multiple problems.

Historically, sodium-ion batteries didn’t pack nearly the energy density of lithium-ion. While a lithium-ion battery offered 185 Wh of energy for every kilogram of weight, early sodium-ion batteries only offered half the power. That meant EVs would have half the range or weigh twice as much. That would be a nonstarter for most models.

Enter CATL’s sodium-ion EV batteries

CATL has developed a better sodium-ion cell. What’s more, its “Naxtra” line of EV batteries includes some lithium-ion cells, and software balances the output of the two chemistries. The result is a 175 Wh/kg battery that can power a car much like a lithium-ion battery. It works in more extreme temperatures, and experts predict it will last for many more charge cycles.

One of the most revolutionary aspects of the Naxtra battery is that CATL claims it will cost 10% as much as a traditional lithium-ion battery. After decades of improving mining and refinement infrastructure, the price of lithium-ion batteries is finally down to $100/kWh. So a 70 kWh Model 3 battery is $7,000 of that car’s cost. Naxtra costs $10/kWh. That means the same Tesla battery would cost $700, and the Model 3 could be more than $6,000 cheaper. That’s a game changer.

Another revolutionary aspect of Naxtra is how long these batteries might last. Batteries lose capacity the more charge cycles they go through. This is one reason drivers are wary of investing in EVs, and used EVs depreciate quicker than ICE vehicles. According to InsideEVs, the latest Model 3 batteries guarantee 1,500 charge cycles before serious capacity degradation. That translates to 300,000 miles of driving. If it loses 15% charing capacity, its 363-mile range drops to about 255 miles, and thus the vehicle’s value drops too. And of course, buying a new lithium-ion battery will cost you $7,000.

Enter Naxtra: because sodium-ion batteries are more stable than lithium-ion batteries, Naxtra batteries may deliver 10,000 cycles before degrading. According to Matt Ferrell, Naxtra batteries could theoretically last 3.6 million miles before their capacity drops to 85%. Even then, they’d be far from worn out.

Is this all just theory? We won’t have to wait long to find out. Six Chinese automakers are ordering Naxtra batteries from CATL, and they’ll be deployed in 30 separate 2026 models. If it’s possible to make batteries this durable, this cheap, and this much better for the environment, the technology could change transportation forever. Electric drive units can easily last a million miles or more. Cheap EVs that can reliably last one, two, or even three million miles with just basic maintenance will drive the cost of car ownership to an all-time low.