Chinese battery leader Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) has unveiled a new sodium-ion battery, called Naxtra, that can work in extreme cold. This new technology will be used in mass-produced passenger cars for the first time worldwide in 2025. Testing is already underway on vehicles in cold Inner Mongolia. "The Naxtra batteries are capable of working in extreme cold areas such as Antarctica, with tests done in -50 degrees Celsius (-58 Fahrenheit)," said Ouyang Xiaolong, CATL's lead passenger car engineer, in an interview with the South China Morning Post. China’s electric vehicle (EV) market growth is slowing, with sales mostly in mild coastal and city areas. In 2025, EV sales growth in China reached the slowest rate in five years at 6.3 percentage points, according to the China Passenger Car Association. Only four of the top 100 cities for EV sales are in very cold regions like Heilongjiang, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia, where winter temperatures can drop to -40 degrees Celsius. This limited EV spread is partly due to lithium-ion batteries, which lose performance below 0 degrees Celsius. Sodium-ion batteries like CATL’s Naxtra offer better safety, performance, and material reliability in low temperatures. However, they traditionally lagged in energy density and battery life. Analyst Ethan Zhang of Nomura said, "Sodium-ion batteries were better in low-temperature performance, safety and materials availability, but they were less competitive in energy density and cycle life." CATL’s innovation promises to unlock new markets for EVs in cold and harsh environments, plugging a key gap in electric mobility worldwide.