On the Dash:
- GM is broadening its battery strategy beyond electric vehicles, targeting the rapidly growing grid-scale energy storage market.
- The company’s battery investments could create new revenue opportunities while strengthening its broader battery technology ecosystem.
- Rising electricity demand from AI data centers and utilities is accelerating interest in alternative battery chemistries such as sodium-ion.
General Motors is developing sodium-ion battery cells for grid-scale energy storage, expanding its battery ambitions beyond electric vehicles through a partnership with Peak Energy, backed by a strategic investment from GM Ventures.
Company executives say sodium-ion technology could become a key solution for utilities, data centers, and other large-scale energy users seeking reliable, affordable power storage.
Rising electricity consumption and expanding AI data center infrastructure are driving demand for long-duration energy storage solutions. Unlike EV batteries, grid-storage systems prioritize reliability, durability and cost-effectiveness over driving range and weight reduction, and GM says sodium-ion chemistry is well suited for those requirements.
Sodium-ion offers advantages
Sodium-ion batteries share similarities with lithium-ion technology but offer distinct performance characteristics, including a wider operating temperature range and greater cycle durability. GM says those traits could reduce the need for complex cooling systems, lowering maintenance and operating costs for utilities and commercial operators.
Additionally, GM believes sodium-ion batteries have substantial room for improvement as the chemistry matures, comparing their trajectory to lithium-iron phosphate batteries, which have advanced substantially over two decades. The automaker plans to prototype sodium-ion cells this year at its Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center in Michigan.
Second-life batteries
Notably, GM is already deploying repurposed EV batteries in energy storage projects. Through a partnership with Redwood Materials, the automaker is placing approximately 10,000 used GM batteries into infrastructure projects, including AI data centers.
Beginning next year, GM plans to deploy second-life battery packs at a Michigan manufacturing facility to reduce electricity costs and support grid reliability.
