Natron energyA sodium-ion battery startup in Santa Clara, California, Operation stopped September 3 due to financing problems. Barely a year ago, the company made the headlines for its plans To build a factory of US $ 1.4 billion In North Carolina to make up to 14 gigawattheures of sodium-ion battery. While experts say that Natron’s closure should not be considered a warning sign for the rest of the emerging industry in the United States, they recognize that the West is behind China, which takes advantage of its domination In lithium-ion batteries to move forward on the manufacture of sodium-ion batteries.
In the United States, sodium-ion startups like Natron, which were launched in 2012, tend to rely on the goodwill of donors, explains KM ABRAHAMProfessor of retired research at the Northeastern University in Boston and CTO of lithium-ion Battery Consulting Firm E-KEM Sciences. This can make challenges for businesses when calendar financing exceeds innovations.
“Companies are unable to progress quickly enough to follow the pressure exerted by investors,” he says.
Natron Prussia Bleu Pioneur Batteries
Until recently, Natron was considered a leader in the American sodium-ion market. Part of the attraction of the company was its pioneering approach to low -cost electrodes, the drivers of the positive and negative terminals of the battery, which come into contact with the non -metallic part of the circuit. The company used Prussian blueA pigment found in paintings and dyes, to do both the cathode and the anode for its Three battery systems. In addition to having a low material cost, the chemical structure of Prussian blue has large pores, which helps it facilitate the faster ions transfer between electrodes.
Natron was the First in the world To market a sodium-ion battery using Blue Prussian, a real feat given the manufacture of the battery of China, said, said Tyler Evansco-founder and CEO of Mana batteryA startup of sodium-ion battery cells in Broomfield, in Broomfield, which was launched in 2023.
“They did it in the West, and they put a relatively low technology in energy density for a very specific market segment on the scale,” explains Evans about Natron products.
Mana is another American startup focused on the market on sodium-ion batteries.Nicholas Singstock / Who
This market included network storage, power backups from the data center and electric vehicle load stations – Land -scale stationary applications where attributes such as safety and cost rank are higher than energy density. Natron’s success in this space, including her plans for the North Carolina factory, has aroused questions about the question of whether sodium-ion could emerge in direct replacement of lithium-ion batteries. United Airlines And Chevron were on Natron’s list of investors.
But Evans says that the scaling of a low energy density product while building manufacturing lines is expensive. “If you are thinking of building a manufacturing plant where you want to produce 10 battery gigawattheures, if your energy density is very low, producing an equivalent number of batteries requires more manufacturing lines,” explains Evans.
“If you are thinking of building a manufacturing plant where you want to produce a gigawatt-hour battery manufacturing capacity, if your energy density by battery cell is very low, the production of this capacity requires more manufacturing lines,” says Evans, which means much more capital and operational expenses in a company already on demand for capital.
In 2023, Natron’s systems put themselves on the market. The company has teamed up with Escorp has deploy The first multi-MEGAWATTS Industry class power platform for industrial applications. A year later, in 2024, Natron open The first manufacturing installation at the United States’s commercial scale in Holland, Michigan to provide data centers with energy storage. The American Department of Energy Arpa-e program provided 19.8 million dollars In Natron as part of an upgrade of $ 300 million installations to move from the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries to the manufacture of sodium-ion batteries. This installation closed at the same time as Natron’s headquarters in California on September 3.
A request for comments from Natron led to an automated message to contact the company’s main shareholder, Sherwood Partners. Sherwood Partners did not respond to a request for comments.
Sodium-ion battery costs vs lithium-ion
Adrian Yao is the founder and team leader of Stanford Management initiativeA research program funded by the DOE. He is also the author of a January 2025 paper Evaluate how sodium-ion batteries measure lithium-ion batteries in terms of technology and cost.
Although he was impressed by Natron’s technology and product, he says that the company may have been ahead of the curve on the niche of the data center that she had cut for himself. “The hyperscalers at the moment, their main concern is to connect and create data centers,” says Yao. “I think the time of this cycle can be early, and these are unhappy things don’t always work.”
Natron joins Stanford’s spin-out Materials like the second sodium-ion company in fold This year. The foundation has cited market and innovation challenges for its April closure.
“The battery sector is very difficult. There are a lot of tombstones, ”says Andrew ThomasPresident and co -founder of Acculon energyStartup marketing based in Columbus, Ohio, Two battery modules With sodium-ion cells for industrial energy and electric vehicles traveling at low speed, such as golf carts. Unlike Natron, Accuron, launched in 2022, employs metal oxides in more traditional layers and other sodium chemies.
Thomas says that it is this distinction that makes it difficult to draw conclusions on the American sodium-ion battery industry as a whole in the light of Natron’s closure. The comparison of different sodium-ion chemies, such as Prussian blue metal oxides or in layers, is like comparison of apples to oranges.
“I do not think that a failure is representative of an incapable country, but we are in an important disadvantage given the base installed in China,” explains Thomas.
China is the dominant player in the development of sodium-ion batteries, with companies like Catl displaying their conceptions at Tech Expos.Yuan Zheng / VCG / AP
The domination of China in the manufacture of batteries
China has long dominated the battery industry and sodium-ion batteries are no exception. Today, China produces more than 75% of the batteries sold worldwide, according to the International Energy Agency. On the sodium-ion front, developers like Catl moved into second generation batteries, with April launch From Naxtra, a brand for EV applications.
Yao says he would like to see the United States focus more on the construction of its manufacturing prowess to compete with China. “My broader criticism of the Western hemisphere in terms of reflection and obsession to try to innovate the problem, is that we focus too much on technology,” explains Yao. “We have very little manufacturing experience … Our performance rates are appalling and our workforce is not formed.”
Founders like Evans and Thomas are optimistic about their prospects, as growing demand for grid storage, data centers and low-cost mobility applications lead to the need for applications which, according to sodium-ion batteries, are only equipped to support in terms of temperature, safety and cost measurements. Regarding manufacturing, Mana takes a page from the Chinese playbook by associating with existing manufacturers to increase production.
Evans says there is an appetite for this type of partnership in the United States at the moment. “I think this is an ideal point for specific sodium marketing.”
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