Sodium-ion battery startup Natron shut down this week and ended its 12-year quest to commercialize technology in the US
The company had $25 million worth of orders in its Michigan plant, but it couldn’t deliver them until it had UL certification, reporting that Natron reported the business closure as it planned to bring jobs to North Carolina at its new plant.
However, getting UL certified can often be a long process that lasts several months. Natron investors balked to release more money, and startups were facing a cash crunch.
Sherwood Partner, a major shareholder of Natron, tried to sell the shares but no buyers were found. As a result, they settled the company and excluded all employees except a small number of employees.
Closures are an example of the challenges associated with trying to manufacture batteries without consistent industrial policy. The road from startup to Gigafactory often takes over a decade – a journey that lasts longer than most business cycles – certainly longer than most investors’ trends.
Natrons are engraved through a process known as “allocation for creditors’ interests.” This replaces Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which could result in quick and quiet sales of assets with many liquidations absent from court proceedings.
A year ago, the company announced it would build a much larger $1.4 billion sodium ion battery factory in North Carolina. Natrons are a market with low sodium ions energy density and are not particularly concerned.
Sodium-ion batteries can be significantly cheaper than their lithium-ion competitors due to their sodium abundance, but this possibility is undermined by China’s lithium price war. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, in the past two and a half years, lithium carbonate prices have slashed craters and fell 90%.
Natron is the latest victim of a recent series of attempts to manufacture large quantities of batteries outside of Asia.
In June, Oregon-based Powin filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after failing to find a non-Chinese supplier of lithium iron phosphate cells. The company used cells to assemble grid-scale batteries.
Earlier this year, Swedish battery maker Northvolt filed for bankruptcy in his home country, finishing his journey for Europe’s best chances with his country’s competitors. The company reportedly burned $100 million a month as it struggled to master a large manufacturing industry. BMW cancelled its $2 billion contract in June 2024 due to the fact that North Bolt was unable to provide it.
The series of obstacles underscores the difficulty of building a battery company outside of Asia that has developed both a mature supply chain and a company with vast expertise over the decades.
For the US or Europe to succeed in creating domestic challengers for the Asian battery giant, it will be government support for more than a decade, rather than the whips that defined the last 15 years. Given the political reality, joint ventures with companies such as Panasonic, LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation are likely to be successful.
In the near future, the best chances in Western household batteries still go through Asia.
