LG Energy Solution has an R&D campus in Ochang, Korea. It chose Nanjing, China, for its sodium-ion pilot plant.

LGES held 9.3% of the global EV battery market in 2025, third behind CATL and BYD. It supplies VW, GM, and Tesla. It has gigafactories on three continents. And when it needed to develop sodium-ion cells beyond the A-sample stage, it went to China. In November 2025, it signed a joint development deal with Sinopec for cathode and anode materials.

Meanwhile, Natron Energy, the only US company with real sodium-ion orders, shut both facilities and canceled a $1.4 billion factory in September 2025.

The supply chain decides where development happens. The chemistry does not.