Energy storage batteries are becoming the next big bet for General Motors, which announced on Tuesday that it will begin producing components for large-scale storage systems. The move places GM alongside Tesla, Ford, and other automakers pushing into a fast-growing market, while also helping the company offset slower electric vehicle sales in the United States.

Why Carmakers Are Turning to Storage

The batteries at the center of this push are massive, some as large as shipping containers. They store surplus energy generated by solar panels, wind turbines, and other sources. Utilities, data centers, and major energy users rely on them for backup power and to smooth out the constant fluctuations between electricity supply and demand.

Tesla has been a pioneer here, selling storage batteries since 2015. Ford, meanwhile, announced last year that it would convert a Kentucky factory to build large batteries after halting EV battery production at the same plant when car sales fell short of expectations.

For automakers, this shift offers a practical advantage. Having invested heavily in battery factories, producing large storage units, as well as smaller versions for homes, gives them a way to earn a stronger return on that spending.

Filling the Gap Left by Slumping EV Sales

The timing is no accident. US carmakers have scaled back electric vehicle production after Congress eliminated tax incentives worth up to $7,500 last year. The result was a sharp drop in sales that forced GM, Ford, Stellantis, and Honda to report billions of dollars in losses on EV investments that no longer look profitable.

Even so, most industry executives still see electric vehicles as the long-term future. Sales of battery-powered models are booming across much of the rest of the world, driven in part by rising fuel prices linked to the war in Iran.

GM chief executive Mary Barra reaffirmed that confidence, saying the company believes EVs are the future, while acknowledging that buyers themselves will ultimately set the pace of the transition.

A Different Battery Strategy: Sodium

What sets GM apart is its choice of technology. Rather than following Tesla and Ford down the lithium path, the company plans to develop battery cells built around sodium as the main active ingredient.

The advantages of sodium are significant:

• It is far cheaper and easier to process than lithium.
• It is often derived from soda ash, a widely available material.
• Sodium-ion batteries do not require the complex heating and cooling systems needed to keep lithium batteries safe and efficient.

GM is partnering with Peak Energy, a company based in California and Colorado, which will integrate the cells into industrial-scale systems. As Kurt Kelty, the GM vice president overseeing the battery business, put it, success in this market comes down to one thing above all: cost.

Still, the technology is not yet ready. Kelty said sodium-ion cells will need further refinement and won’t reach mass production until 2028. For now, the batteries are too large and heavy for most vehicles, though that could change within four or five years as performance improves and costs fall. He described the field as being at its very beginning, with plenty of room to grow.

Turning Cars Into Power Sources

GM also unveiled plans to roll out software updates that will let some of its electric vehicles send power back to the grid.

Owners of electric Chevrolet models, including the Silverado pickup and the Equinox and Blazer SUVs, along with several Cadillac vehicles, would be able to earn money by allowing utilities to draw power from their cars when plugged into home chargers. The company says it has already sold roughly 250,000 vehicles capable of this feature.

Wade Sheffer, vice president of GM Energy, said the technology would, over time, put money back in customers’ pockets. He also urged utility companies to take fuller advantage of the growing fleet of vehicles that could help balance electricity supply and demand.

The concept is not unique to GM. Tesla offers a vehicle-to-grid feature on its Cybertruck, and Ford’s F-150 Lightning has similar capabilities. The bottleneck has been the utilities themselves, which tend to adopt new technology slowly and have so far run only small pilot programs to test the idea.

Making EV Ownership Easier

Alongside its storage and grid announcements, GM said it is updating its EV software to simplify public charging. Drivers should no longer need phone apps to start a session at many stations, including those run by Tesla. Instead, they can simply plug in and walk away.

According to Kelty, the broader mission is to make owning an electric vehicle both more affordable and more convenient. He pointed to range, cost, and charging as the three persistent pain points for EV owners, and said tackling those challenges is exactly what GM is aiming for.

By expanding into energy storage batteries while improving the everyday EV experience, GM is hedging its bets, leaning into the long-term promise of electrification even as the US market goes through a difficult stretch.