You heard it here first: General Motors is no longer a mere automotive manufacturer. While GM will continue to produce vehicles long into the future, it has determined that to be truly competitive in an electrified future, it needs to become an energy company. And that's exactly what it is doing.
Solidifying its future comes with the announcement that the company will invest heavily in sodium-ion batteries specifically designed for stationary power uses, such as power storage for data centers or helping solar farms continue producing electricity when the sun isn't shining. Sodium-ion makes more sense in these types of applications because it can work efficiently in a variety of climate conditions, even though it doesn't have the energy density to make sense in an automobile.
Full disclosure: GM was so keen to tell me about its sodium-ion battery plans, it flew me to San Francisco and put me up in a hotel so I could meet its energy team.
Sodium-ion batteries for the grid
If it sounds like GM is hedging its bets in a variety of battery technologies, that's because it is. The company currently uses NMC technology in its electric vehicles and will have LMR available later this year. LFP battery tech exists for its more affordable EVs. Now, sodium-ion will be used outside of direct automotive applications. With GM's investment in its Warren battery lab, the company says it can actively develop the right chemistry for the right application, rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.
While it's easy to be skeptical, GM's work with companies like Redwood Materials and its overall manufacturing capabilities could open the door to becoming a diversified solutions provider at a large industrial scale. Currently, sodium-ion battery production is underway with a different supplier, but GM expects to be using its own batteries from 2028.
Meanwhile, every single new GM EV on sale right now is capable of sending power back to the power grid, and GM Energy's vehicle-to-home hardware is now grid-enabled with a simple firmware update. By 2030, in partnership with PG&E, GM says some 53,000 EVs will be sending power back to the grid, helping make that grid more resilient for everyone.
The car is only part of the equation
Sterling Anderson, GM's new Chief Product Officer, refers to the company's vehicles as "the most useful, most complex robot most of us will ever own." He's not referring strictly to autonomy here, either. With sizable onboard compute and massive energy storage in each vehicle, these cars become little power plants that can do everything from edge inference to improving grid efficiency. A more efficient grid is a safer grid, which is something Northern Californians know a lot about.
GM is not without criticism, though. The company wrote down $6 billion of investment as it slowed down electric vehicle development, while its counterparts in China are going full speed ahead on new EVs, charging, and technology improvements. GM was also caught flat-footed regarding hybrids, having nothing to offer while Toyota and Hyundai are overflowing with electrified options.
But GM is preparing for the future. Not only does it know that EVs are an inevitability, it also knows it will need a diversified offering to stay competitive, especially if the Chinese start selling directly in the U.S. That's why there's a focus on offering energy solutions at scale; that's why the company is talking about more than automobiles. And when you cut through the stock market hype and the marketing feculence, you can clearly see that GM wants to stay resilient and relevant no matter what the future holds, or how many wheels — if any — it has.