BYD Launches the World’s First Mass-Produced Sodium-Ion Battery Forklift!

2026-01-23 | Calvin

Recently, BYD Forklift held the global new product launch summit themed “Ride the Momentum · Embark on a New Journey” in Shaoguan, officially unveiling the world’s first mass-produced sodium-ion battery counterbalance forklift. Through foundational technological innovation, BYD is reshaping the competitive landscape of the industry.

Breakthroughs in Sodium-Ion Technology That Directly Address Industry Pain Points

The debut of this mass-produced sodium-ion forklift marks a major milestone, signaling that sodium-ion battery technology has moved from laboratory research to large-scale industrial application. Leveraging BYD Group’s deep expertise in batteries and its vertically integrated capabilities, the product achieves three key technological breakthroughs:

• Wide operating temperature range from -40°C to 60°C, overcoming the long-standing issue of sharp performance degradation in lithium batteries under low temperatures, making it ideal for demanding environments such as cold-chain warehousing and extremely cold regions.
• Over 10 years of extended warranty, aligning the battery lifecycle with the vehicle lifecycle and redefining total cost of ownership (TCO) calculations.
• Ultra-high rate performance, supporting 4C fast charging and 6C continuous discharge, enabling new possibilities for optimizing energy efficiency and power configuration.

More importantly, sodium-ion batteries rely on sodium resources, which are estimated to be 400 times more abundant than lithium, widely distributed, and significantly lower in cost. At a time when lithium carbonate prices continue to fluctuate, sodium-ion technology provides the industry with a more secure and controllable supply chain, strengthening resource independence. As large-scale production accelerates, the cost advantage of sodium-ion batteries will become even more pronounced, with costs expected to decrease by more than 30% in the future.

Three Years of Strategic Investment to Build a Full Industry Chain Capability

This technological breakthrough is not accidental—it is the result of BYD’s three-year commitment to industrialization and long-term development. In 2023, BYD partnered with U.S.-based Cyngn to launch a prototype sodium-ion autonomous forklift and publicly announced its sodium-ion development roadmap. In the same year, BYD reached a cooperation agreement with Huaihai Holding Group, initiating the construction of a sodium-ion production base with a total investment of RMB 10 billion and an annual capacity of 30GWh.

In 2024, BYD’s sodium-ion R&D achieved a 200Ah cell capacity and over 10,000 cycles, completing the full production process and successfully deploying MWh-scale energy storage systems. In 2025, a megawatt-level sodium-ion energy storage project involving BYD passed acceptance testing, laying a solid reliability foundation for industrial applications.

In addition to sodium-ion technology, BYD has also introduced passenger-vehicle-grade Blade Battery technology into the forklift sector, strengthening its safety advantage in the high-end market. At the same time, BYD launched supporting solutions such as the Smart Charging Cube Cabinet and an AGV integrated scheduling system, driving an upgrade from single-machine equipment supply to a “product + service + ecosystem” business model. This enables BYD to deliver full-scenario material handling solutions.

Setting New Industry Standards and Leading Value-Driven Competition

Today, electrification of industrial vehicles has become an irreversible trend. However, relying solely on parameter comparisons and price competition is unlikely to create sustainable long-term advantages. Bi Guozhong, General Manager of BYD Group’s 18th Business Division, emphasized that the future of the industry lies in developing differentiated products through disruptive technologies and redefining customer value.

The mass production of BYD’s sodium-ion forklift is not only a critical step in commercializing advanced battery technology, but also accelerates the industry’s shift from “widespread electrification” toward competition based on scenario-specific, precision energy-efficiency solutions.

At the event, BYD signed annual strategic agreements with multiple core distributors, demonstrating its strong determination to drive collaborative implementation across the supply chain. With 2026 widely regarded as the first year of large-scale sodium-ion battery industrialization, BYD—backed by its closed-loop, full-industry-chain capabilities—uses the sodium-ion forklift as a strategic pivot to strengthen its leadership in technology innovation. More importantly, it is opening a new industrial vehicle track powered by dual drivers: resource security and scenario adaptability.