GM Expands Energy Storage, Data Center Push with New Battery Tech

Danielle DeVries | CNBC

General Motors is expanding efforts to capitalize on the expected growth of energy storage and data centers by promoting different battery cell chemistries, while also offering more support for its electric vehicle owners to combat higher energy costs.

The Detroit automaker detailed plans Tuesday to increase its vehicle-to-grid capabilities — in which a vehicle can provide energy to the electric grid — for its EV customers and develop next-generation sodium-ion batteries that GM's battery leader said "will reshape grid-scale energy storage."

Both moves are meant to address concerns about rising energy costs amid an artificial intelligence boom. The stock market has speculated that vast sums of money will be spent on infrastructure to support a big data center buildout.

"Sodium-ion-powered energy storage systems have the potential to operate without active cooling and with much less system complexity," Kurt Kelty, GM's vice president of battery and sustainability, said Tuesday in a blog post. "In large energy storage systems, that matters."

Not having to cool the battery cells could lead to lower upfront costs as well as operating costs, the automaker said.

Courtesy GM

GM is partnering with Denver-based startup Peak Energy on sodium-ion battery cell development, after the company already demonstrated how the chemistry can "translate into lower costs and greater reliability," Kelty said.

The automaker expects the tie-up with Peak Energy will produce sodium-ion cells for customer use after 2028.

The leadership team of Peak Energy — which was founded in 2023 — includes former employees of Tesla , Lockheed Martin and battery developer Northvolt, according to its website.

A GM spokesman declined to comment on details or cost of the partnership with Peak Energy.

Along with developing new sodium-ion battery cells, GM said it is continuing work on reusing its large EV batteries for energy storage systems with companies such as Redwood Materials and producing lower-cost lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, battery cells through a joint venture with LG Energy Solution.

LFP batteries are viewed as a quick way for companies to take advantage of existing battery capacity, while GM said it sees the sodium-ion battery cells as a future solution for such systems.

"Our next-generation sodium-ion cell development will drive energy density higher, with the potential to outperform more mature chemistries, including LFP, over time. In a market increasingly shaped by cost pressure, energy demand growth, and geopolitical risk, that's a real differentiator," Kelty said.

GM has spent billions of dollars in recent years to increase its research and development as well as battery cell production for exponential growth of all-electric vehicles that did not materialize as planned.

GM, through its Ultium Cells joint venture, currently has about 90 gigawatt hours of production capacity at two plants, one in Ohio and one in Tennessee. Ultium Cells in March announced a $70 million investment to begin producing LFP batteries for energy storage systems at the Tennessee plant.

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Other automakers, including GM crosstown rival Ford Motor , have shifted to focus on energy storage to assist in filling capacity at multibillion-dollar battery plants in the U.S.

For GM customers, the ability to have an EV be capable of sending energy back to the grid during peak hours, or to power their home, through an energy storage system from the Detroit automaker could help with reducing energy costs and grid usage.

GM said it is seeking partnerships with utility companies nationwide to assist in offering such vehicle-to-grid services for customers. It's already working with utility companies in California and Michigan.

Residential electricity prices in the U.S. have risen by nearly 48% since January 2020, from 12.76 cents per kilowatt-hour to 18.83 cents per kilowatt-hour in March 2026, and are expected to rise to around 19 cents per kilowatt-hour starting in March 2027, according to a recent forecast by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

GM on Tuesday also announced an "Energy Pass" that targets more seamless public charging for its EV customers, including when using Tesla Superchargers, and said all of the all-electric vehicles it produces as of the 2027 model year will include a North American Charging Standard charging port.