A GM energy display is seen at the New York International Auto Show on April 16, 2025.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
General engines is stepping up its efforts to capitalize on expected growth in energy storage and data centers by promoting different battery cell chemistries, while also offering more support to 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 electrical grid) for its electric vehicle customers and to develop next-generation sodium-ion batteries that GM’s battery leader says will “reshape energy storage on a grid scale.”
Both measures aim to address concerns about rising energy costs amid a boom in artificial intelligence. The stock market has speculated that huge sums of money will be spent on the infrastructure needed to build a large data center.
“Energy storage systems powered by sodium ions have the potential to operate without active cooling and with much less system complexity,” Kurt Kelty, GM vice president of batteries and sustainability, said in a blog post Tuesday. “In large energy storage systems, this is important.”
Not having to cool the battery cells could result in lower upfront costs as well as operating costs, the automaker said.
At its core, a sodium-ion battery works much like a lithium-ion battery, but GM says it has the potential to operate over a wider temperature range and for more cycles.
Courtesy of the General Manager
GM is partnering with Denver-based startup Peak Energy to develop sodium-ion battery cells, after the company already demonstrated how the chemistry can “result in lower costs and greater reliability,” Kelty said.
The automaker expects the partnership with Peak Energy to produce sodium-ion cells for customers after 2028.
Peak Energy’s management team, founded in 2023, includes former employees of Tesla, Lockheed-Martin and battery developer Northvolt, according to its website.
A GM spokesperson declined to comment on the details or cost of the partnership with Peak Energy.
Along with the development of new sodium-ion battery cells, GM said it is continuing work on repurposing its large electric vehicle batteries for energy storage systems with companies such as Redwood Materials and on producing lower-cost lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, battery cells through a joint venture with LG Energy Solution.
LFP batteries are seen as a quick way for companies to leverage the capacity of existing batteries, while GM said it sees sodium-ion battery cells as a future solution for such systems.
“Our development of next-generation sodium-ion cells will result in higher energy density, with the potential to outperform more mature chemicals, including LFP, over time. In a market increasingly shaped by cost pressures, growing energy demand and geopolitical risk, this is a true differentiator,” Kelty said.
GM has spent billions of dollars in recent years to increase its research and development and production of battery cells in preparation for exponential growth in fully electric vehicles, which has not materialized as expected.
GM, through its Ultium Cells joint venture, currently has approximately 90 gigawatt hours of production capacity at two plants, one in Ohio and one in Tennessee. Ultium Cells announced a $70 million investment in March to begin producing LFP batteries for energy storage systems at the Tennessee factory.
Other automakers, including GM Crosstown rival Ford enginehave turned to energy storage to help fill capacity at multibillion-dollar battery factories in the United States.
For GM customers, the ability to have an electric vehicle capable of sending energy back to the grid during peak hours, or powering their home, through an energy storage system from the Detroit automaker could help reduce energy costs and grid usage.
GM said it is seeking partnerships with utility companies nationwide to help it bring such network vehicle services to customers. The company already works with utility companies in California and Michigan.
Residential electricity prices in the United States have increased 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 reach about 19 cents per kilowatt hour starting in March 2027, according to a recent forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
GM also announced Tuesday an “Energy Pass” that targets more seamless public charging for its electric vehicle customers, including when using Tesla Superchargers, and said all fully electric vehicles it produces starting with the 2027 model year will include a charging port that meets North American charging standards.