Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) has taken a leap forward in commercialising sodium-ion batteries, signing a large supply contract with an energy-storage system (ESS) provider amid high demand for power infrastructure after the global oil shock.

The world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) and ESS battery maker announced on Monday that it would deliver 60 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of sodium-ion batteries to Beijing HyperStrong Technology over three years in a landmark deal for the new battery technology.

Sodium-ion batteries, an alternative to the pervasive lithium-ion type, bank on a more plentiful raw material, making them cheaper to produce.

“The deal could be interpreted as a ‘DeepSeek moment’ for the global ESS battery industry, since wide use of sodium in production could greatly reduce costs and improve manufacturing efficiency,” said Davis Zhang, a senior executive at Suzhou Hazardtex, a supplier of specialised batteries. “Commercialisation of sodium-ion batteries will benefit the EV and ESS industries.”

Artificial intelligence start-up DeepSeek drew the world’s attention to China’s AI prowess in early 2025 when it released a breakthrough large language model developed at a lower cost than Western counterparts.

The order was the world’s largest for sodium-ion batteries to date, in line with booming construction of ESS infrastructure buoyed by AI computing and data centres around the world.

“This agreement signals that CATL has overcome all the challenges in mass-producing sodium-ion batteries,” the company said in a statement. “We now have the capability for large-scale delivery.”