US Government confirms Social Security payment on May 7 only for these retirees and disability beneficiaries

As the second half of April approaches, millions of retirees across the U.S. are preparing to receive their monthly Social Security benefits, a crucial component of their financial security. For many older Americans, this payment serves as a primary source of income, helping them meet daily expenses in an economy that remains unpredictable.

The next official payment date on the calendar is Wednesday, May 7, 2025—but not everyone will be receiving their check on that day. The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses a staggered payment system, dividing retirees into different groups depending on when they retired and their date of birth. This ensures an orderly distribution of funds across each month.

Who Will Get Paid on May 7?

Only those classified under Group 2 by the SSA are slated to receive their deposits on April 16. To belong to this group, retirees must meet two specific conditions:

  • Their retirement benefits must have begun after May 1997.
  • Their birthday must fall between the 1 and 10 day of any given month.

If either of these requirements isn’t met, the payment will not arrive on April 16. Instead, beneficiaries will likely receive their deposit a week later, on May 14, 2025, as part of Group 3.

It’s worth noting that once a retiree is assigned to a group, this classification—and the associated payment date—remains unchanged.

What Is the Highest Possible Social Security Benefit?

Social Security payments vary depending on each recipient’s work history and the age at which they filed for benefits. While the average check is significantly lower, the maximum monthly benefit for 2025 stands at $5,108.

Achieving this maximum is rare and typically only applies to those who earned the highest taxable income over several decades and chose to delay claiming benefits until turning 70. Most retirees will receive lower amounts, commonly ranging between $1,500 and $3,500, depending on their unique circumstances.

Regardless of the exact amount, knowing your payment schedule and eligibility is essential to maintaining financial stability in retirement—and for many in Group 3, April 16 will be a key date to remember.

Americans are more worried about running out of money in retirement than dying. Experts offer ways to reduce that risk

Many Americans are worried they’ll run out of money in retirement.

In fact, a new survey from Allianz Life finds that 64% Americans worry more about running out of money than they do about dying. Among the reasons cited for those fears include high inflation, Social Security benefits not providing enough support and high taxes.

The fear of running out of money was most prominent for Gen Xers who are approaching retirement. However, a majority of millennials and baby boomers also said they worry about their money lasting, according to the online survey of 1,000 individuals conducted between January and February.

Separately, a new Employee Benefit Research Institute report finds most retirees say they are living the lifestyle they envisioned and are able to spend money within reason. Yet more than half of those surveyed agreed at least somewhat that they spend less because of worries they will run out of money, according to the survey of more than 2,700 individuals conducted between January and February.

Meanwhile, a Northwestern Mutual survey reported that 51% of Americans think it’s “somewhat or very likely” they will outlive their savings. The survey polled 4,626 U.S. adults aged 18 and older in January.

Since those studies were conducted, new tariff policies have caused disturbance in the stock markets and prompted speculation that inflation may increase. Meanwhile, new leadership at the Social Security Administration has prompted fears about the continuity of benefits. Those headlines may negatively affect retirement confidence, experts say.

With employers now providing a 401(k) plan and other savings plans versus pensions, it is largely up to workers to manage how much they save heading into retirement and how much they spend once they reach that life stage. That responsibility can also lead to worries of running out of money in the future, experts say.

How to manage the ‘fear of outliving your resources’

Because of the unique risks every individual or couple faces when planning for retirement, the best approach is typically to transfer some of that burden to a third party, said David Blanchett, head of retirement research at PGIM DC Solutions.

Creating a guaranteed lifetime income stream that covers essential expenses can help reduce the financial impact of any events that require retirees to cut back on spending, Blanchett explained.

That should first start with delaying Social Security benefits, he said. While eligible retirees can claim benefits as early as 62, holding off up until age 70 can provide the biggest monthly benefits. Social Security is also unique in that it provides annual adjustments for inflation.

Next, retirees may want to consider buying a lifetime income annuity that can help amplify the monthly income they can expect. Admittedly, those products can be complicated to understand. Therefore Blanchett recommends starting out by comparing very basic products like single premium immediate annuities that are easier to compare.

“Unless you do those things, you just can’t get rid of that fear of outliving your resources,” Blanchett said.

Without a guaranteed income stream, retirees bear all of the financial risk themselves, he said.

“Retirement could last 10 years; it could last 40 years,” Blanchett said. “You just don’t know how long it’s going to be.”

Among retirees, there has been some hesitation to buy annuities, said Craig Copeland, EBRI’s director of wealth benefits research. Such a purchase requires parting with a lump sum of money in exchange for the promise of a guaranteed income stream.

“We see great increase in interest, but we aren’t seeing upticks in take up yet,” Copeland said. “I do think that’s going to start to change.”

What can help boost retirement confidence

To effectively plan for retirement, it helps to seek professional financial assistance, experts say.

Meanwhile, few people have a plan of their own for how they may live on the assets they’ve worked hard to accumulate, according to Kelly LaVigne, vice president of consumer insights at Allianz Life.

“This is something that you should not plan on doing on your own,” LaVigne said.

While the survey from Northwestern Mutual separately found individuals think they need $1.26 million to retire comfortably, the real number individuals need is based on their personal situation, said Kyle Menke, founder and wealth management advisor at Menke Financial, a Northwestern Mutual company.

In thinking about how life will look in 30 years, there are a variety of things to consider, Menke said. This includes stock market returns, taxes, inflation and medical expenses, he said.

Even people who have enough money for retirement often don’t feel confident in their ability to manage all of those factors on their own, he said. Financial advisors have the ability to run different simulations and stress test a plan, which can help give retirees and aspiring retirees the confidence they’re lacking.

“I think that’s where the biggest gap is,” said Menke, referring to the confidence Americans are lacking without a plan.

Intel CFO says tariffs increase chance for economic slowdown, recession getting likelier

Intel CFO David Zinsner said President Donald Trump’s tariffs and retaliation from other countries has increased the likelihood of a recession.

“The very fluid trade policies in the U.S. and beyond, as well as regulatory risks, have increased the chance of an economic slowdown, with the probability of a recession growing,” Zinsner said on the company’s quarterly earnings call on Thursday.

Intel reported better-than-expected first-quarter results, partially because some customers stockpiled chips ahead of tariffs, the company said. However, guidance for revenue and profit was below expectations, pushing the chipmaker’s stock down more than 5% in extended trading.

Intel’s forecast for the current quarter is $11.2 billion to $12.4 billion. Zinsner said the range is “wider than normal” due to uncertainty caused by tariffs.

The company’s outlook underscores how sensitive manufacturers are to trade restrictions, even for companies that are committed to building products in the U.S. While Intel manufactures some of its advanced processors domestically, it also partners with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung in Korea to manufacture chips, and imports chipmaking machinery from ASML in Europe. The company also needs parts and materials that come from China.

Zinsner said the tariff environment makes it harder for Intel to predict its performance for the quarter and the year, and added that it’s now anticipating that the total market for its chips could shrink, especially if consumers stop buying new computers.

“The biggest risk we see is the impact of a potential pullback in investment and spending, as businesses and consumers react to higher costs and the uncertain economic backdrop,” Zinsner said.

Although Intel has enough production in disparate places around the world to mitigate some of the tariffs, the company “will certainly see costs increase,” he added.

One possibility is that consumers may opt for laptops and other computers based around older-generation chips, which are less expensive, said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, CEO of Intel Products.

“The macroeconomic concerns and tariffs have everybody kind of hedging their bets in what they need to have from an inventory perspective,” Holthaus said on the earnings call.

Beyond tariffs, Intel faces efforts by the U.S. government to require licenses to ship advanced chips for artificial intelligence to countries like China.

Intel’s earnings report on Thursday was its first under CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who was appointed to the job last month. Tan said he planned to cut Intel’s operational and capital expenses in order to make the company more efficient.

Fed’s Kashkari nervous that trade policy uncertainty will lead to layoffs

(Reuters) -Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari on Thursday said the extreme uncertainty over U.S. trade policy has him “nervous” about big layoffs, though so far he has only heard about businesses starting to plan for the possibility if the uncertainty lasts.

The most optimistic thing that could happen this year for the U.S. economy would be “a resolution of trade disputes with our major trading partners, that would relieve extraordinary uncertainty that … businesses large and small and people across the country are experiencing right now,” Kashkari said at the University of Minnesota. “And the thing about confidence is if we all get nervous at the same time … it can really bring down the economy, really slow it down.”

California becomes the world’s 4th-largest economy, surpassing Japan

Governor Gavin Newsom announced that California is now the fourth-largest economy in the world.

As of Wednesday, California has overtaken Japan and is only behind the United States, China and Germany, according to newly released data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

“California isn’t just keeping pace with the world—we’re setting the pace. Our economy is thriving because we invest in people, prioritize sustainability, and believe in the power of innovation. And, while we celebrate this success, we recognize that our progress is threatened by the reckless tariff policies of the current federal administration. California’s economy powers the nation, and it must be protected,” said Newsom.

The United States leads all nations with a 2024 Nominal GDP of $29.18 trillion.

Followed by China at $18.74 trillion, Germany at $4.65 trillion, California at $4.1 trillion and Japan at $4.02 trillion.

California’s economy is growing more rapidly than the world’s three largest economies, according to Newsom. In 2024, California achieved a 6% growth rate, surpassing the U.S. (5.3%), China (2.6%), and Germany (2.9%).

Over the past four years, California sustained strong economic growth, averaging 7.5% nominal GDP growth from 2021 to 2024. However, early projections suggest that India could overtake California’s economic position by 2026.

Help for ACA health plans could be harder to come by since RFK axed teams of ‘fixers’

They’re the fixers, the ones who step in when Affordable Care Act enrollees have a problem with their coverage, like a newborn incorrectly left off a policy or discovering that a rogue broker had signed them up or switched their plan without consent.

Specially trained caseworkers help resolve such issues, which might otherwise cause consumers to rack up large doctors’ bills or prevent them or their family members from getting care.

Now, though, the broad federal reduction in force set in motion by the Trump administration has cut the ranks of those caseworkers, slashing two out of six divisions of caseworkers, according to one affected worker and a former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services official familiar with the situation, Jeffrey Grant.

Currently, the number of ACA enrollees is at an all-time high of 24 million. The ACA — known as Obamacare — has long drawn disfavor from Republicans and Trump himself. The health law faces additional changes next year that, if adopted, could sow confusion and more problems. Consumers would face a new learning curve with extra paperwork and rules. And the caseworker cuts might extend the time needed to resolve any difficulties.

“It impacts not only our jobs, but all these people we serve,” said one New York City-based caseworker, who was let go in a Feb. 14 purge affecting federal employees in their probationary periods. “Usually, we would have on average 14 days to take care of a case that was very difficult, although the urgent cases would be solved within two to three business days. It will now be delayed so much more. Whole teams got wiped out completely.”

NPR and KFF Health News are not naming the two affected workers in this article because they fear professional or personal repercussions for speaking to the media.

The two teams of caseworkers were dismantled in a haphazard fashion that left some workers without an official notice but locked out of their computers.

The cuts have demoralized caseworkers, whose jobs demand a grasp of complex and arcane health insurance rules in a little-known government department that most consumers don’t interact with — CMS’ Exchange Customer Solutions Group — until they need help.

“The loss in staffing is going to reduce the ability for people to get through” to caseworkers after contacting the marketplace or other organizations for help, said Jackie Kiger, executive director of Pisgah Legal Services, a nonprofit that provides legal and ACA help for North Carolina consumers and is facing a budget reduction under a separate effort by the Trump administration to cut “navigator” funding by 90%. Navigators are government-funded nonprofits that help people enroll in the ACA or resolve problems with coverage.

The federal force reduction aims to decrease the number of employees at agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services from 82,000 to 62,000, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and CMS.

CMS, which oversees the ACA and other government health programs, will lose about 300 workers, including about 30 caseworkers scattered nationwide. The cuts come amid thousands of other federal job losses, including front-line workers across an array of agencies, from Social Security field offices to the National Park Service.

In a press release, HHS estimated its reduction in force will save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year. No one from CMS responded to KFF Health News’ questions about the caseworker reductions.

What will be affected?

When consumers have a problem with their ACA plan, their first step is usually to call the federal or state marketplace where they purchased coverage.

Those call centers can handle basic questions about plans purchased on the federal exchange, which serves 31 states. (State marketplaces handle their own complex cases and don’t rely on federal caseworkers.)

When someone calls the federal marketplace 800 number with coverage problems, the inquiry probably winds up on a caseworker’s desk, said one affected caseworker. That employee received a reduction-in-force notice several days after losing access to their work computer on April 1.

Caseworkers usually don’t speak directly with consumers, the worker said. Using information sent over by the federal marketplace — including notes taken when consumers called in with problems, as well as ACA applications — they handle or oversee consumer requests, such as canceling a plan or adding a member.

One of the last problems handled by that caseworker involved a child born in November who was not added correctly to the family’s plan for 2024, meaning any care the child received during the last two months of the year was not covered and the family risked being stuck with the bills.

“This person did everything right, including calling the marketplace within 60 days to report the birth and add the newborn to their coverage,” said the worker, who was quickly able to resolve it because it was a marketplace error.

The worker, who is now soured on federal employment and will look for a new job in the private sector, said that caseworkers handled an average of 30 issues a day, but that in recent months the number kept climbing, heading past 45, and grew even more intense after the Feb. 14 dismissal of probationary employees.

“It’s not an easy job,” the worker said, noting the challenge of constantly evolving rules and policies governing health plans.

Ferreting out fraud

In the past year, caseworkers have dealt with cases involving unauthorized enrollments or switching, a problem that ticked up in late 2023, according to KFF Health News investigations, and continued through much of last year, resulting in at least 274,000 complaints to CMS through August.

The complaints centered on practices by rogue brokers who enrolled or switched coverage for consumers without their express knowledge. The result could leave them without access to their health provider networks, drug coverage, or even facing a tax bill.

Though it is unclear how many such complaints fell to a federal caseworker, some improperly switched consumers want to be restored into plans they had originally chosen, while others want them canceled.

“I have seen people who were enrolled and every two or three months a broker would switch them to a different plan,” said the caseworker who was locked out in April. “The more health plans they were enrolled in, the more difficult it was to handle on the back end.”

New hires spend months learning the ropes.

The New York-based worker let go in February during her probationary period said she had joined CMS in October and spent three months in training. Just about a month after completing that training, she was let go — a bitter irony, she said, because she had sought stability in a job with the federal government, having experienced a layoff during her private-sector career.

“I took a huge pay cut — over $40,000 — when I went from the private sector into the government,” said the mother of three whose husband serves in the military. Her federal salary was about $76,000, which is not high for an expensive market like the New York metropolitan area. “But I took it as an opportunity to get in the door and move up. Then, boom, I get hit with another layoff.”

“I can only imagine how hard it is for people with 10 to 15 years with the government who are banking on it for retirement,” she said.

Starting next year, the Trump administration has proposed several changes to the ACA, including ending year-round eligibility for very low-income applicants, requiring additional financial and eligibility documentation, and charging some people a monthly $5 fee when auto-reenrolled in coverage until they confirm their eligibility.

Such changes will “make things harder, so there you will have more things that go wrong,” said Grant, the former CMS official, who founded Schedule F Healthcare Strategies after leaving CMS. “You will then also have fewer caseworkers to handle the work.”

The Social Security 2026 COLA Forecast Just Increased. But There’s Bad News for Retirees.

Millions of retired workers depend on Social Security benefits to make ends meet, and they count on annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) to keep their payments aligned with inflation. Benefits lose purchasing power if those COLAs are too small, in which case Social Security recipients would effectively get less money.

The Senior Citizens League, a nonprofit and nonpartisan senior advocacy group, recently raised its 2026 COLA forecast to 2.3%. That upward revision from the previous estimate of 2.2% was somewhat surprising because the March inflation reading was the lowest since September.

That’s good news at first glance. But trends in the underlying inflation data point to a problem for retirees: Social Security benefits will likely lose purchasing power next year. Here’s why.

The problem with Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment (COLAs)

Social Security recipients receive annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) designed to keep benefits in line with inflation. The COLAs are determined based on a subset of the Consumer Price Index known as the CPI-W.

The math is simple: The average CPI-W reading in the third quarter of the current year (July to September) is divided by the average CPI-W reading from the third quarter of the previous year. The percent increase (if any) becomes the COLA in the next year.

But there’s a problem: CPI-W inflation is based on the spending habits of working adults. But they tend to be younger than retirees on Social Security, and young people spend money differently than seniors. As a result, CPI-W inflation is not an ideal measure of pricing pressures for Social Security beneficiaries.

For instance, retired workers tend to spend more than working-age adults on housing and medical care, and they tend to spend less on transportation. Consequently, from the point of view of retirees, the CPI-W puts too little emphasis on housing and medical care, and too much emphasis on transportation because the index is weighted based on the habits of hourly workers.

Why Social Security benefits are likely to lose buying power in 2026

CPI-W inflation decelerated to 2.2% in March 2025, the lowest reading since September 2024. But housing and medical care prices increased 3.7% and 2.7%, respectively, while transportation prices dropped 1%. In other words, price increases trended above average in underweight spending categories and below average in overweight categories.

The same pattern has persisted throughout the first three months of 2025. Listed here are the average year-to-date changes in the overall CPI-W and select spending categories:

  • CPI-W (all categories): 2.6%

  • Housing: 3.7%

  • Medical care: 2.8%

  • Transportation: 1.4%

As shown above, CPI-W inflation averaged 2.6% in the first three months of 2025. But housing and medical care expenses increased more quickly, while transportation costs increased more slowly. Consequently, CPI-W readings are probably underestimating inflation from the perspective of retired workers on Social Security.

That’s because prices in underweight spending categories are increasing more quickly than the overall index, while prices in the overweight transportation category are increasing less quickly than the overall index. As a result, Social Security benefits are presently on pace to lose purchasing power next year

We can double check that assumption by referring to the CPI-E, a subset of the Consumer Price Index based on the spending habits of individuals aged 62 and older. CPI-E inflation was 2.9% during the first three months of 2025, topping CPI-W inflation by 0.3 percentage points. That supports the idea that CPI-W readings are underestimating inflation for retired workers, which means the 2026 COLA is likely to be too small.

Having said that, the Social Security Administration cannot calculate the 2026 COLA until CPI-W data for the third quarter is available, which will happen in October 2025. A lot could change during the interim period. But retirees can get ahead of the problem by being a little more judicious with their spending today.

Google DeepMind on what’s next for Gemini, AGI, and AI self-awareness

60 Minutes interviewed Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis on “what’s next for AI,” with a hint about where Gemini is going.

The interview shows more of the Project Astra app that is currently available to trusted testers. Of note was a greeting from Astra to start things off: “Hello, Scott. It’s nice to see you again.” Gemini Live does not currently have that, with that internal version having more of a memory. (Specifically, it remembers key details from previous conversations for better context and personalization. There’s also a “10-minute memory” of the current conversation. These capabilities will presumably make their way to Gemini Live.)

Looking ahead, Google DeepMind is “training its AI model called Gemini to not just reveal the world but to act in it like booking tickets and shopping online.” This sounds like Project Mariner, which Sundar Pichai previously said was coming to Gemini this year.

Hassabis reiterates that he believes artificial general intelligence (AGI) is 5-10 years away. When asked by 60 Minutes what that will look like in 2030, he says:

… we’ll have a system that– really understands everything around you in very– nuanced and deep ways– and are kind of embedded in your everyday life.

During the interview, Hassabis was asked if Google DeepMind is “working on a system today that would be self-aware.”

I don’t think any of today’s systems to me feel self-aware or, you know, conscious in any way. Obviously, everyone needs to make their own decisions by interacting with these chatbots. I think theoretically it’s possible.

When asked if “self-awareness a goal of yours,” he says “not explicitly”:

But it may happen implicitly. These systems might acquire some feeling of self-awareness. That is possible. I think it’s important for these systems to understand you, self and other. And that’s probably the beginning of something like self-awareness.

I think there’s two reasons we regard each other as conscious. One is that you’re exhibiting the behavior of a conscious being very similar to my behavior. But the second thing is you’re running on the same substrate. We’re made of the same carbon matter with our squishy brains. Now obviously with machines, they’re running on silicon. So even if they exhibit the same behaviors, and even if they say the same things, it doesn’t necessarily mean that this sensation of consciousness that we have is the same thing they will have.

Retiring soon? Not so fast. Here are 3 serious retirement risks that older Americans often forget about — and how to deal with them ASAP

Planning for retirement is something that’s best to do throughout your career, not just when you’re approaching that milestone and have a year or two left to work.

Only half of Americans have tried to calculate how much money they’ll need in retirement, according to a 2024 survey by the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI).

However, among those workers who did the calculation, 52% were inspired to save more. Even if you feel confident in your ability to cover your retirement expenses, it’s important to be mindful of hidden costs that could impact your retirement finances. Here are three to keep on your radar.

Healthcare expenses not covered by Medicare

Fidelity Investments expects the typical 65-year-old to spend $165,000 on healthcare during retirement. That may sound surprising, but even with Medicare coverage, several expenses could arise.

For one thing, Medicare isn’t entirely free. Most enrollees don’t pay a premium for Part A, which covers hospital care. However, Part B, which covers outpatient care, charges a monthly premium, as do some Part D drug and Medicare Advantage plans. Plus, higher earners risk surcharges on their Medicare premiums.

Premiums aside, there are a number of expenses that original Medicare (Parts A and B plus a Part D drug plan) does not cover, which retirees commonly need. These include dental care, eye exams, prescription glasses and hearing aids.

You’ll also face copays and coinsurance under Medicare that you must pay out of pocket. If enrolled in original Medicare, you can buy supplemental insurance known as Medigap to help offset those costs. But then you’re looking at premiums for Medigap, too.

Read more: Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now become a landlord for as little as $100 — and no, you don’t have to deal with tenants or fix freezers. Here’s how

Long-term care

It’s a big misconception that Medicare will pay for you to live in a nursing home or cover the cost of a home health aide. Medicare’s scope of coverage is typically limited to medical issues only. So while Medicare might pay for rehab or physical therapy because you broke a hip, it won’t pay for a home health aide because you’re getting older and need help dressing yourself and using your kitchen.

Meanwhile, the cost of long-term care can be astronomical. According to Genworth, here are the annual median costs for certain long-term care services in the U.S. for 2024:

Home health aide: $77,792

Assisted living: $70,800

Shared nursing home room: $111,325

Private nursing home room: $127,750

One option for defraying these costs is to buy long-term care insurance. But that might bust your budget, too. The American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance says an average $165,000 policy with no inflation protection purchased at age 55 by a single male costs $950 a year. For a 55-year-old female, that policy costs an average of $1,500. And for a 55-year-old opposite-gendered couple, the average price is $2,080 combined.

Of course, the actual cost of long-term care will depend on factors such as where you’re located, your age at the time of your application and the state of your health. But all told, you might spend a lot of money to put that coverage in place.

Inflation

In recent years, retirees and working Americans alike have experienced their share of rampant inflation. But even when inflation isn’t as aggressive, it’s still a hidden cost that can upend your retirement budget.

Social Security benefits are, thankfully, designed to keep up with inflation. They’re eligible for an annual cost-of-living adjustment tied to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, a subset of the more widely known Consumer Price Index.

But ensuring that your savings can keep up with inflation is also critical. One way to do this is to avoid eliminating equities from your portfolio in retirement. You need some growth in your portfolio to make up for rising living costs. You can work with a financial advisor to develop an appropriate asset mix based on your income needs and risk appetite.

A financial advisor can also help set you up with assets in your portfolio that generate income. These could include dividend stocks, bonds and real estate investment trusts (REITs).

It could also be a good idea to delay your Social Security claim past your full retirement age, which is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. For each year you do, until age 70, your benefits rise 8%. And that boost is guaranteed for life.

Having a larger monthly benefit gives you more leeway to tackle not only inflation, but also surprise medical and health-related expenses. So it’s a move worth considering if you don’t need to sign up for Social Security sooner.

China’s CATL launches new sodium-ion battery brand

SHANGHAI, April 21 (Reuters) – China’s CATL (300750.SZ), opens new tab on Monday launched a new brand for its sodium-ion batteries, Naxtra, which it said would go into mass production in December, and a second generation of its fast-charging battery for electric cars.
CATL became the first major automotive battery maker to launch a sodium-ion battery in 2021. Unlike other battery materials, sodium is cheap and abundant, and the chemistry has the potential to reduce fire risks in EVs, experts have said.
The first production under the Naxtra brand will be of a new sodium-ion battery with an energy density of 175 watt-hours per kilogram, nearly equivalent to the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries popularly used in electric vehicles and grid energy storage systems.
Sodium-ion batteries may have a cost advantage over lithium-ion batteries as the technology and supply chain develop, said Ouyang Chuying, co-president for R&D at CATL.
CATL’s billionaire founder Robin Zeng has said he sees sodium-ion batteries potentially replacing up to half the market for LFP batteries that CATL now dominates.
Besides Naxtra, CATL also launched the second generation of its Shenxing fast-charging battery, which it said can enable a 520 km driving range with a five-minute charge, and reach 80% charging from 0% in 15 minutes in cold weather.
More than 67 new electric vehicle models will be powered by the Shenxing battery this year, said CATL’s Chief Technology Officer
Gao Huan at an event in Shanghai, without specifying how many would be equipped with the first or second generation version.
Over 18.32 million cars equipped with CATL batteries are running in more than 66 countries globally, according to Gao.
CATL also launched a new system to pair battery packs together, similar to the two-engine system on passenger jets, which the company said would improve EV safety.
Last month, CATL reported 15% growth in 2024 net profit, the slowest pace in six years, as a prolonged price war in China’s electric vehicle market put pressure on the Chinese EV battery giant.
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