Salt could become a hot commodity as demand for sodium-ion batteries soars, according to Morgan Stanley. The bank’s analyst Jack Lu and his team predict that sodium-ion batteries will account for 20% of the total battery deployment market share by 2030 and 37% by 2035. Currently, his team expects sodium-ion batteries to account for about 2% of the market next year. “We refer to the early sodium-ion battery era as the ‘new oil era,'” Lu wrote to customers. Lu said sodium-ion batteries are attracting attention because they are 30% to 40% more affordable than batteries made from lithium iron phosphate. What’s more, Lu said it performs better in cold weather. Considering these benefits, the sodium-ion battery market is expected to grow from today’s experimental stage to a global annual market size of 830 gigawatt hours by 2030, Lu said, and that number could grow to 2.4 terawatt hours by 2035. About $800 billion in new investment is expected by 2035 to fuel this growth, Lu said. “In an AI-driven, power-intensive world, sodium-ion batteries address a critical bottleneck where energy security and AI meet,” Lu wrote. “This chemistry is much more than just a niche experiment. A new breed of batteries has the potential to redefine energy security and disrupt both new installations and the installed base.” Lu said he expects to see more industry winners enter emerging fields. “These incumbents can leverage their existing customer relationships, global production capacity, and depth of R&D to rapidly capture low-end markets while simultaneously pushing sodium-ion batteries into high-value applications,” the analysts wrote. Andrew Percoco, another Morgan Stanley analyst, said sodium is widely available and cheap in the United States. Another advantage is that using this type of battery allows companies to bring some of their production back home, he said. Percoco said General Motors has gained an “initial foothold” in the U.S. market through a partnership with Peak Energy to develop next-generation sodium-ion batteries. The deal gives GM exclusive manufacturing rights in the U.S., as well as additional licensing opportunities to contract manufacturers. GM YTD 2026 Mountain GM GM expects deployment of grid-scale energy storage projects to begin in 2028 or later, Percoco said. Automakers can also use sodium iron technology for applications in the defense and mobility sectors. General Motors stock has lost some ground after falling nearly 4% this year, surging more than 52% in 2025 and more than 48% in 2024. But Wall Street expects a rebound ahead, with the average analyst rating it a buy and predicting the stock could rise 20%, according to LSEG.
