Bluetti’s at IFA 2025 with the world’s first portable power station built around a sodium-ion battery, and a second, slim unit designed to mount next to the fridge to keep it running during a blackout.
The Pioneer Na (get it? Na = sodium) is covered in AC and USB jacks and delivers up to 1,500W of continuous power, which is enough for the majority of household or camping devices. It also accepts up to 500W of solar input. But the star of this show is its 900Wh sodium-ion battery — a “world’s first,” according to Bluetti.
Take that claim with a… pinch of salt, however, because Bluetti announced a larger and more capable sodium-ion power station on wheels back in 2021. It’s unclear, however, if that unit ever went on sale. The Pioneer Na also arrives a few months after Elecom launched the world’s first sodium-ion power bank.
On the plus side, that sodium-ion (or Na-ion) chemistry allows the power station to be used in extreme cold — albeit with slightly diminished performance, Bluetti warns. But you’ll still be able to charge it in temperatures down to -15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit), and power your devices as temps plummet to -25C (-13F). By comparison, the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries found in newer power stations shouldn’t be charged below 0C (32F) and have an operating limit of -20C (-4F).
And like LFP, Na-ion batteries are not prone to thermal runaway and are good for over 4,000 cycles — that’s over 10 years if the Pioneer Na is cycled every day, and even then it’ll still be at 70 percent of its original capacity. Sodium is plentiful and easy to find and thus avoids the use of rare earth metals like cobalt or the lithium used in LFP batteries.
But here’s the catch: Manufacturing of Na-ion cells relies upon an immature supply chain, and those cells can’t match the energy density of their LFP counterparts. As a result, Na-ion batteries tend to be bigger, heavier, and more expensive than LFP batteries of the same capacity.
The Pioneer Na weighs 16kg (35.3lbs) and measures 340 × 247 × 317mm. That makes it much heavier and larger than Bluetti’s 11.5kg (25lb) Elite 100 V2, which measures 320 × 215 x 250mm and features a slightly larger 1kWh LFP battery, more powerful 1,800W of output, and twice the solar input. So really, you’re only buying this for use in extremely cold conditions or if you want to avoid rare earth minerals.
The Pioneer Na will go on sale globally starting October 15th for an undisclosed price.
Meanwhile, Bluetti’s FridgePower Portable Power Station is just 2.95 inches thick yet has enough battery capacity (2kWh) and output (1,800W) to keep an average fridge-freezer combo running — checks chart — for nearly a full day in the event of a blackout. If you need more time or want to power additional appliances, then you can expand storage capacity with up to three expansion packs for a total of 8k Wh. It’s unclear what battery chemistry they’re using, but it’s not sodium-ion.
FridgePower is a direct competitor to BioLite’s own behind-the-fridge battery backup solution that has yet to hit retail even though it was announced in September 2024. The Bluetti FridgePower goes on sale worldwide starting November 4th for an undisclosed price.