GM eyes a new type of battery to boost the data center, energy storage business
GM’s power display is seen at the New York International Auto Show on April 16, 2025.
Danielle DeVries | CNBC
General Motors is increasing efforts to capitalize on the expected growth of energy storage and data centers by promoting different battery cell chemistries, while also providing more support to its electric vehicle owners to combat high energy costs.
The Detroit automaker detailed plans Tuesday to expand its vehicle-to-grid capability — where the vehicle can provide power to the electric grid — for its EV customers and develop next-generation sodium-ion batteries that GM’s battery leader says will “reshape energy storage at the grid scale.”
Both measures are designed to address concerns about rising energy costs amid the rise of artificial intelligence. The stock market assumed that large sums of money would be spent on infrastructure to support the construction of a large data center.
“Sodium-ion-powered energy storage systems have the potential to operate without active cooling and with system complexity,” said Kurt Kelty, GM’s vice president of battery and sustainability, on Tuesday in a blog post. “For large energy storage systems, that’s important.”
Not cooling the battery cells can lead to lower upfront costs and operating costs, the automaker says.
At a basic level, a sodium-ion battery works like a lithium-ion battery, but GM says it has the ability to operate across a wider range of temperatures and more cycles.
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GM is working with Denver-based startup Peak Energy on sodium-ion battery development, after the company has already shown that the chemistry “can translate to lower costs and greater reliability,” Kelty said.
The automaker expects that the partnership with Peak Energy will produce sodium-ion cells for customer use after 2028.
Peak Energy’s leadership team – 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 the details or costs of the partnership with Peak Energy.
Along with developing new sodium-ion battery cells, GM said it is continuing work to recycle its large EV batteries through energy storage programs with companies such as Redwood Materials and is producing low-cost lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, battery cells in partnership with LG Energy Solution.
LFP batteries are seen as a quick way for companies to use existing battery power, while GM said it sees sodium-ion battery cells as a future solution for such systems.
“The next generation of the development of the sodium-ion cell will improve the power of the high power, the power of passing mature chemicals, including LFP, in the long run. In the market according to the composition of cost pressure, the growth of energy demand, and geopolitical risk, that is a real division,” said Kelty.
GM has spent billions of dollars in recent years to expand its research and development and production of battery cells to dramatically increase all-electric vehicles that did not materialize as planned.
GM, through its joint venture Ultium Cells, currently has about 90 gigawatt hours of manufacturing capacity at two plants, one in Ohio and one in Tennessee. Ultium Cells in March announced a $70 million investment to begin manufacturing LFP batteries for energy storage systems at a plant in Tennessee.
Other automakers, including GM’s crosstown rival Ford Motorhave switched to energy storage to help fill capacity at multi-billion dollar US battery plants
For GM customers, the ability to have an EV that can send power to the grid during peak hours, or power their home, with an energy storage system from the Detroit automaker can help reduce energy costs and grid usage.
GM said it is looking for partnerships with charities across the country to help provide customers with services like these. It already works with utility companies in California and Michigan.
Residential electricity prices in the US have increased by about 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 increase to about 19 cents per kilowatt-hour by March 2027, according to US News.
On Tuesday, GM also announced the “Energy Pass” that aims for seamless public charging for its EV customers, including when using the Tesla Supercharger, and said that all electric vehicles it produces starting in the 2027 model year will include a standard North American charging port.
