On August 22, China Battery Net (Battery 100, itdcw.com) published a report citing Yinggong Technology's official announcement that the production line at the company's Suzhou (Anhui) manufacturing base formally reached full-capacity production in mid-August, with the 20 millionth 18650-900mAh sodium-ion cell coming off the line at the same time. This is the latest volume-production milestone since the company disclosed its “dual-base” layout — on August 17, its Jinjiang (Fujian) manufacturing base, a joint venture with Zhangzhou Huawei Power Supply Technology, officially broke ground (that event was separately reported on August 20 as “Yinggong Technology and Huawei Power Supply's RMB 1.5bn Jinjiang sodium-ion production base breaks ground, phase one planned for Q4”). The company said the simultaneous “groundbreaking” and “full production” mark a new stage in its scaled commercial application of sodium-ion batteries.
The Suzhou line is Yinggong's core manufacturing base dedicated to high-rate sodium-ion cells, with products targeting motorcycle start-stop, general-purpose engine start-stop and emergency starting power applications. According to company disclosures, the line has introduced fully automatic closed-loop slurry preparation systems and double-sided coating machines to tightly control electrode surface-density fluctuation, and has built more than 200 online data collection points for real-time monitoring of key indicators such as tab burrs, alignment and welding quality, supporting consistency control at monthly shipments of millions of cells.
The Jinjiang base will build a flexible high-speed line compatible with multiple sodium-ion cylindrical cell formats using full-tab (all-tab) technology, extending applications from motorcycle starting to general-purpose engine starting and emergency starting power. Yinggong Technology focuses on anode-free sodium-ion battery technology and has developed three product lines — high-energy (Yinfeng), high-power (Yinsu) and high-safety (Yinhu) — covering 3C products, power tools, light-duty power, automotive, low-altitude power and energy storage.
“full production”, “20 millionth cell” and “monthly shipments of millions of cells” are all company-disclosed figures; “top tier of the domestic industry” and “establishing a leading position” are the company's own assessment, and the industry ranking of shipment volumes has not been independently verified by third parties. What still deserves attention: the ramp-up pace and delivery data of the combined capacity of the two bases after the Jinjiang base starts production; beyond starting power, the progress of the company's anode-free sodium-ion batteries in larger-capacity markets such as energy storage and light-duty power; the customer structure and order sustainability of the 18650 cell. It is currently premature to conclude that the competitive landscape of sodium-ion in the starting-power market has been settled.