Changan ships Nevo A06 with Naxtra

Sodium-ion batteries have been one of those “maybe next year” EV stories for a while. The pitch always sounded good — cheaper materials, less dependence on lithium, better cold-weather behavior. But the missing piece was simple: an actual passenger car you could point to. That changed on February 5, when Changan and CATL unveiled the Nevo A06 as what they call the first mass-production passenger EV with a sodium-ion battery, with market launch planned for mid-2026. ### What actually shipped here? The car is the Changan Nevo A06 — also called the Qiyuan A06 in some coverage — and the battery is CATL’s Naxtra sodium-ion pack. CATL and Changan presented it together at Changan’s sodium-ion strategy event in Yakeshi, Inner Mongolia, and CATL said this is not a lab demo but a production vehicle headed to market in mid-2026. (catl.com) ### Why is sodium-ion a big deal? Because sodium is abundant and cheap, at least compared with the metals that define today’s lithium-ion supply chain. Basically, sodium-ion is being positioned as a second chemistry, not a total replacement — something that can cover lower-cost cars, cold climates, and parts of the market where absolute maximum range matters less than price, safety, and supply resilience. (catl.com) CATL itself framed this as the start of a “dual-chemistry” era, where sodium-ion sits alongside lithium-ion instead of trying to kill it. ### What are the actual numbers? The Nevo A06 uses a 45 kWh Naxtra battery pack. Changan and CATL say it delivers more than 400 km of pure-electric range on the CLTC cycle, with cell energy density up to 175 Wh/kg. That matters because sodium-ion has usually been discussed as lower-energy and therefore too compromised for mainstream cars. This is still not a long-range flagship setup, but it is squarely in usable daily-driver territory. (catl.com) ### So what’s the tradeoff? Range. The sodium version is shorter-legged than the lithium-powered A06 variants already on sale. CarNewsChina notes the existing lithium versions are rated at 510 km and 630 km, so sodium-ion is not arriving as a performance upgrade. It’s arriving as a different value proposition — enough range, potentially lower cost, and better behavior in conditions where batteries usually struggle. (catl.com) ### Why does cold weather keep coming up? Because this is where sodium-ion looks genuinely different. CATL says the battery delivers nearly triple the discharge power of an equivalent LFP pack at -30 °C, retains more than 90% of capacity at -40 °C, and can still discharge stably at -50 °C. That’s the kind of claim that makes sense for northern China, commercial fleets, and anyone tired of winter turning EV range into a guessing game. (carnewschina.com) ### Is this just one car? No — and that may be the more important part. CATL says it will supply Naxtra packs across Changan’s broader brand portfolio, including AVATR, Deepal, Qiyuan, and UNI. So the Nevo A06 looks less like a one-off science project and more like the first proof point in a wider rollout. ### Does this mean sodium-ion is taking over? (catl.com) Not yet. Lithium still wins where you want the most range in the smallest, lightest pack. But turns out sodium-ion does not need to beat lithium everywhere to matter. It just needs to be good enough in the slices of the market where cost, cold-weather reliability, and material availability matter more than headline range. ### Bottom line The Nevo A06 matters because it makes sodium-ion real. Not in a prototype. Not in a slide deck. In a passenger EV headed for sale this year in China — and that is how battery chemistry shifts from promise to market fact. (catl.com)