The planned annual capacity of Zoolnasm's manufacturing facility includes 20 GWh of sodium-ion battery cells and 10 GWh of sodium-ion battery systems.

(Image credit: Zoolnasm)

Chinese sodium-ion battery startup Jiangsu Zoolnasm Energy Technology Co Ltd has begun construction of its first battery manufacturing site, marking an important event for the industry.

Zoolnasm's sodium-ion battery manufacturing base project in Guangde, Anhui province, officially began construction on November 19, the company announced yesterday.

This is Zoolnasm's first sodium-ion battery mass production base and the world's first mass production base for polyanionic sodium iron sulfate sodium-ion batteries, it said.

The sodium battery manufacturing base project has a total planned investment of RMB 10 billion ($1.4 billion) and a total land area of 600 mu (400,000 square meters).

The planned annual capacity of the manufacturing base includes 20 GWh of sodium-ion battery cells, and 10 GWh of sodium-ion battery systems.

The production base will be built in two phases, with the first phase covering an area of about 323 mu, with an investment of RMB 4 billion, and is expected to be completed in August next year, with an annual capacity of 10 GWh of sodium-ion battery cells.

Zoolnasm did not mention the construction schedule of the second phase of the production base.

Zoolnasm was founded in January 2021 and is located in Suzhou, Jiangsu province in eastern China. The company's scientist, Zhao Jianqing, has fifteen years of experience in sodium-ion battery research and development and holds a number of leading patents, according to its website.

The company has successfully developed three sodium-ion battery cathode material preparation technologies, and its soft-pack battery samples have been tested by a third party and have performance indicators that far exceed those of competing products, it said.

On March 4, 2022, Zoolnasm announced that it had secured a new round of financing in which Country Garden Venture Capital, the venture capital arm of real estate giant Country Garden, was the exclusive investor.

The company did not announce the amount of the financing, but said they will be used to expand the R&D and mass production technology team.

($1 = RMB 7.1747)

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