The world's first mass-production passenger EV running a sodium-ion battery pack is set to roll off Changan's assembly line before year-end, and the cell behind it comes from CATL, the largest battery maker on Earth. The Changan Nevo A06, unveiled in February, runs CATL's Naxtra cell at roughly 175 Wh/kg, close to lithium iron phosphate, and keeps working from minus 40 degrees Celsius to plus 70. That operating range matters more for a Tallinn February than another few kilometres of range on paper.
The Nevo A06 is not a one-off. BYD's third-generation sodium cells are rated for more than 10,000 charge cycles, and CATL says its Naxtra pack retains about 90% of capacity at minus 40 and can still take a charge when frozen solid. Sodium's energy density still trails lithium, so the pull is elsewhere: the element is abundant, and it sidesteps the cobalt and nickel that make conventional packs expensive.
For European drivers, the timing lines up with the charging network. The IEA's Global EV Outlook 2026 put the Netherlands at 210,000 public charging points at the end of 2025, ahead of Germany's 196,000 and France's 185,000, with five EU countries growing their networks by more than 50% in a single year. Ultra-fast points of 150 kW and up now make up 11.8% of Europe's public network, up from 9.4% a year earlier, according to a 2026 gridX charging report.
Sodium-ion trades density for cost and cold-weather stamina
CATL's Naxtra sits at about 175 Wh/kg today, close to LFP, and the company is targeting LFP-level density within three years to reach roughly 600 km of range. The discharge power at minus 30 is nearly three times that of an equivalent LFP cell, CATL says. For a city-range car in a cold climate, that is a bigger deal than a few extra kilometres on paper.
Sodium will not replace lithium at the premium end any time soon. It is arriving fast, though, as the chemistry of choice for cheap, cold-climate, city-range cars.
Solid-state has left the lab and entered the road
A Mercedes-Benz EQS drove 1,205 km from Stuttgart to Malmö without stopping in August 2025 on lithium-metal solid-state cells from US maker Factorial, developed with Mercedes-AMG's Formula 1 powertrain unit in Brixworth. The pack holds about 25% more usable energy at a weight and size close to the standard EQS battery, and Mercedes wants the technology in series production by the end of the decade.
The route ran on ordinary highways through three countries, not a closed test track, and that is the part that matters. Solid-state swaps the flammable liquid electrolyte for a solid one, which buys more energy in the same space, better safety, and headroom for long range. The catch has always been building the things at volume.
China's Ganfeng has started small-scale production of a solid-state cell it rates at 500 Wh/kg, while GAC-backed Greater Bay Technology rolled out all-solid-state A-sample cells and is targeting gigawatt-hour production this year. The first production vehicle on a solid-state pack is, oddly, a motorcycle: the Verge TS Pro from an Estonian-Finnish firm runs cells from Finnish startup Donut Lab.
The Donut Lab claims of 400 Wh/kg, five-minute charging, and 100,000-cycle life drew open scorn from battery scientists, with one rival chief executive saying flatly that such a battery does not exist. A March pack-level test from a respectable lab did sustain 100 kW for five minutes in a real bike, so something is happening there. It is a low-volume motorcycle, not a car you can warranty for a decade, and no carmaker has matched it in a passenger EV yet.
Silicon anodes are already in showrooms
If solid-state is the long game, silicon anodes are the upgrade happening right now, inside cars you can order. The new Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupé, built on the AMG.EA platform, uses a silicon-containing anode paired with an NCMA cathode to reach 298 Wh/kg at cell level, the high end of today's lithium-ion. That chemistry lets it charge at 600 kW and go from 10% to 80% in about 11 minutes, the fastest charging from any Western carmaker. Production starts at Sindelfingen in summer 2026.
Silicon stores far more lithium than the graphite anodes in most cells, which is why it boosts both range and charging speed. The problem is that silicon swells by roughly 300% as it charges and shrinks as it drains, which cracks a pure-silicon anode apart. Today's answer is a silicon-graphite blend, with the share of silicon creeping up over time.
There is a supply-chain angle too. The Netherlands' LeydenJar and Germany's NorcSi are both scaling silicon-anode production in 2026, while US players Sila and Group14 ramp up volume. Graphite is overwhelmingly processed in China, so a shift toward silicon is partly an industrial hedge, not only a performance one. It drops into existing designs as the cells mature, with no new car platform required.
Prices keep falling, and that matters more than the chemistry
Battery prices fell 8% to a record-low $108 per kWh in 2025, according to BloombergNEF's annual battery price survey of hundreds of companies, now 93% cheaper than in 2010. Packs for battery-electric cars came in at $99 per kWh, the second year under $100. BloombergNEF expects another small drop in 2026, and points to silicon, lithium-metal and solid-state as the next wave of cost cuts.
The catch for European drivers is geography. Average pack prices in China were $84 per kWh, while Europe ran about 56% higher. That is a big reason an EV here still costs more than the petrol equivalent.
Tesla confirmed on its January 2026 earnings call that it is now making 4680 cells with both anode and cathode using a fully dry electrode process in Texas, putting those packs in some Model Y cars. The dry process skips the wet, solvent-heavy coating step, which reduces factory space and cuts costs. Elon Musk pushed back in May on talk that it would halve battery cost, saying it would significantly reduce cathode production cost rather than the whole pack. The dry cathode had resisted mass production since 2020, so finally cracking it is real progress, even if it is not the cheap-car miracle once promised.
Cheaper LFP and sodium pull in the same direction. The result is a new battery technology for electric cars that you will actually notice in the cheaper sticker price.
Charging catches up: megawatt and five-minute top-ups
Bigger, faster batteries are pointless if charging cannot keep pace, and that gap is closing fast. BYD has set the pace: its Super e-Platform and BYD Flash Charging technology run at 1000V and can hit megawatt-class power, adding around 400 km of range in five minutes on home-market cars. In April, BYD brought it to Europe with the launch of the Denza Z9 GT in Paris, a 115,000 euro shooting brake that recharges from 10% to 80% in about six and a half minutes. BYD says it plans 3,000 flash-charging stations across Europe within a year, open to any car with a CCS2 plug, starting in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the UK and the Netherlands.
The Mercedes-AMG GT's 600 kW sits just behind this, and it is the fastest a Western brand currently offers. Most European fast chargers still top out between 150 kW and 400 kW, with new 600 kW units only starting to appear. The Megawatt Charging System you read about is a separate standard for trucks and buses; passenger cars stay on CCS2 in Europe, even for megawatt charging levels.
Wireless charging is inching forward too. The Porsche Cayenne Electric is the first production EV with factory-fitted inductive charging, at up to 11 kW from a floor plate. Think of it as a home-convenience feature rather than a fast-charging one. No other production car has confirmed it will follow yet.
What it means for European drivers
Strip away the chemistry and the practical question is whether an EV fits where you live. Across more of Europe, the infrastructure now says it does. The Netherlands ended 2025 with 210,000 public charging points, ahead of Germany at 196,000 and France at 185,000, with five EU countries growing their networks by more than 50% in a single year: Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania, partly helped by the EXPAND-E programme and its more than 70 million euros across 23 member states.
AFIR, the EU rule that mandates high-power charging every 60 km along major highways, is pushing the build-out. The latest EV battery technology and the chargers to feed it are arriving together, which has not always been true.
Line up the new battery technologies of 2026 and the pattern is clear. Solid-state has gone from a lab curiosity to a Mercedes crossing three countries on a single charge. Sodium-ion, the chemistry built for a proper European winter, is about to put cheap cold-weather cars on sale. Silicon anodes are already in showrooms, quietly buying back range and minutes at the plug. Underneath it all, battery prices, and thus EV prices, keep falling. If you have been holding out for the next EV battery update before you switch, this is the year the waiting stopped paying off. Plenty is still a year or two away, but the innovations that have already arrived are real.
See also the IEA Global EV Outlook 2026 for the full deployment data, and our battery tech coverage for more on this beat.