Chinese energy storage company Hithium has unveiled its next-generation sodium-ion battery energy storage system, introducing a 4 MWh platform designed for utility-scale applications. The company launched the system and its new 785 Ah sodium-ion cell at its “Powered Day in, Day out” event on September 16, 2026. Full-scale production and deliveries are planned for 2027.
The new system, named ∞Power N4.0MWh, is built around Hithium's ∞Cell N785Ah sodium-ion battery. The cell is designed for 20,000 cycles at 70% state of health and can support storage durations ranging from two to eight hours, positioning the technology primarily for long-duration stationary energy storage applications.
The N785Ah cell uses a sodium iron phosphate pyrophosphate (NFPP) cathode, a hard-carbon anode and a customized electrolyte. Hithium said its material and manufacturing work focused on improving sodium-ion conductivity, reducing degradation and addressing the energy-density and lifecycle challenges associated with sodium-ion chemistry. The company also developed ultra-thick electrodes and structural components intended to withstand repeated expansion and contraction over the cell's operating life.
At the system level, the ∞Power N4.0MWh uses a stacked-cell architecture and a dedicated battery management system. Hithium reports state-of-charge estimation accuracy of within 2.5%, while the system is compatible with power conversion systems operating between 800 V and 1,500 V. The company also says PCS rated-power utilization is more than 20% higher than its previous-generation sodium-ion system.
The redesigned architecture reduces the required storage-station footprint by 30%, according to Hithium. The company reports 24-hour comprehensive system efficiency above 88%. The system combines air and liquid cooling with AI-enabled thermal management and weather monitoring, allowing cooling operations to respond to environmental conditions. Hithium estimates that the approach can reduce operating auxiliary power consumption by 30% and standby auxiliary consumption by 50%.
Hithium has designed the system around a 30-year service life, equivalent to 10,950 days of intended operation. The long operating horizon is aimed at bringing sodium-ion storage closer to the lifecycle expectations of infrastructure-scale power assets. The company plans to initially target utility-scale applications before expanding the technology to commercial and industrial, residential and broader energy-access markets.
Sodium-ion technology is gaining attention as an alternative chemistry for stationary storage because it relies on sodium rather than lithium as the principal charge-carrying element. Hithium's earlier N162Ah sodium-ion cell, introduced in 2024, had already been developed specifically for utility-scale storage and was reported by the company to exceed 20,000 cycles. The new N785Ah platform represents a substantial increase in cell capacity and is intended to move the technology toward larger-scale deployment.
Hithium also intends to use its existing lithium-ion manufacturing infrastructure to accelerate sodium-ion production. The company says the N785Ah cell is compatible with its 1,000 Ah lithium-ion manufacturing platform, including cell and system-integration production lines. This could allow sodium-ion manufacturing to scale without requiring an entirely separate production architecture.
The company has launched the ∞Edge Pioneer Program alongside the new products to test sodium-ion cells and storage systems in extreme environmental conditions. Hithium plans to publish progress from the program over the next three years and gradually introduce technology packages for challenging operating environments. It has also set a longer-term target of reducing the levelized cost of storage to RMB 0.1 per kWh.
The development comes as large-scale battery storage becomes increasingly important for integrating variable renewable generation. Longer-duration systems can store surplus solar and wind electricity and discharge it during periods of higher demand or lower renewable output. The commercial availability of high-cycle sodium-ion systems could therefore add another battery chemistry to the expanding utility-scale storage market, although real-world operating performance and costs will need to be established through commercial deployments.