Sodium ion already powers a grid and a road
HiNa Battery Technology, a company founded in 2017 and headquartered in Beijing, builds a sodium ion battery, a design that replaces the lithium in a normal cell with sodium, a common, cheap element. According to MIT Technology Review, a cube shaped sodium ion battery built by HiNa has been powering a commercial scale energy storage station in Hubei Province, China, since it began operating in July 2024, at an energy density of 165 watt hours per kilogram. The same report states HiNa sodium ion cells also run inside electric mopeds and other small vehicles.
In October 2025, HiNa states that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China added a sodium ion powered tractor truck, the Golden Dragon XMQ4252, built with Golden Dragon Heavy Duty Automobile, to its latest approved batch of vehicles cleared for manufacture and sale. HiNa describes it as the first sodium ion powered 49 ton tractor in the world, its own claim.
Iron air is fully booked but not yet running
Form Energy builds an iron air battery, a design that stores and releases power by rusting and unrusting iron, using no lithium at all. In August 2026 the company announced 750 million dollars in Series G financing, bringing its total equity raised to over 2 billion dollars. The release states that the backlog of signed iron air battery agreements held by Form Energy grew from about 20 gigawatt hours to 80 gigawatt hours, including projects with Xcel Energy, Google, Crusoe and FuturEnergy Ireland. Nowhere in the release does Form Energy state a figure for gigawatt hours currently delivering power to a customer. 2 new executives joined instead, to help the company scale manufacturing and prepare for commercial growth still to come.
Form Energy states the 80 gigawatt hour signed backlog but states no figure for gigawatt hours currently delivering power. This chart reads that absence as 0, a calculation made for this article, not a number stated directly by the source.
Show the numbers
| Signed backlog | 80 |
| Delivering power today | 0 |
Lithium sulfur went to the army, not to a customer
Li S Energy builds a lithium sulfur battery, a chemistry that pairs a lithium electrode with a sulfur electrode instead of the nickel and cobalt used in many other lithium batteries. The company states it delivered its first lithium sulfur battery cells to the US Army DEVCOM C5ISR Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground, its first delivery of technology to a US government agency, made for independent evaluation and testing, not a sale.
Graphene aluminium ion is still in the lab
Graphene Manufacturing Group builds a graphene aluminium ion battery, a cell that replaces the lithium in a normal battery with aluminium and uses a graphene material at the cathode, the electrode current flows into while the battery charges. Company figures show the energy density of its pouch cell version doubled between December 2025 and April 2026, from 26 to 49 watt hours per kilogram at a fast, 6 minute charge, and from 58 to 101 watt hours per kilogram at a slower, 1 hour charge. The cell remains at Battery Technology Readiness Level 4, a laboratory testing stage on a scale that reaches 9 once a product actually ships, with customer testing not due to start until 2026 and small commercial production not due to start until 2027.
I am extremely proud that GMG has progressed its battery to this stage, the Company is getting very close to final commercialisation steps.
Jack Perkowski, non executive chairman of Graphene Manufacturing Group. Source 3.
With the possibility of charging from empty to full in around six minutes, this chemistry fundamentally changes how designers can think about electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and stationary storage.
Bob Galyen, non executive director of Graphene Manufacturing Group and former chief technology officer of CATL. Source 3.
The HiNa figure, source 1, is a battery already running a grid storage station since July 2024. The 2 graphene figures, source 3, are lab pouch cell results at Battery Technology Readiness Level 4, not yet sold to a customer.
Show the numbers
| HiNa sodium ion deployed today | 165 |
| Graphene lab cell 1 hour charge | 101 |
| Graphene lab cell 6 minute charge | 49 |
Only 1 of the 4 has a paying customer
Of the 4 chemistries, only sodium ion has moved past a press release and reached a paying customer, a grid storage station running since July 2024 and a truck cleared for manufacture and sale. This does not mean sodium ion beats every rival chemistry on energy density. It means sodium ion is the only one of the 4 with a product a customer can already point to.