General Motors is looking to a new battery type to grow its data center and energy storage business

GM It is expanding its efforts to capitalize on expected growth in energy storage and data centers by promoting different battery cell chemistries, while offering more support to electric vehicle owners to combat rising energy costs.

The Detroit automaker detailed plans Tuesday to increase its grid-connecting capabilities — where a vehicle can provide power to the electric grid — for its electric vehicle customers and to develop next-generation sodium-ion batteries that GM’s battery leader said will “reshape grid-scale energy storage.”

Both moves aim to address concerns about rising energy costs amid the artificial intelligence boom. The stock market speculated that huge amounts 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 much less system complexity,” Kurt Kelty, GM’s vice president of battery and sustainability, said Tuesday in a blog post. “In large energy storage systems, this is important.”

Not having to cool battery cells could result in lower initial costs as well as operating costs, the automaker said.

GM is teaming up with Denver startup Peak Energy to develop sodium-ion battery cells, after the company has already shown how the chemistry can “translate to lower costs and greater reliability,” Quilty said.

The automaker expects the tie-up with Peak Energy to produce sodium ion cells for customer use after 2028.

The leadership team for Peak Energy – 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 cost of the partnership with Peak Energy.

Besides developing new sodium-ion battery cells, GM said it continues to work on repurposing large electric vehicle batteries for energy storage systems with companies like Redwood Materials and producing low-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 utilize existing battery capacity, while GM said it sees sodium-ion battery cells as a future solution for such systems.

“The development of our next generation sodium ion cells will increase energy density, with the potential to outperform more mature chemistries, including LFP, over time. In a market increasingly shaped by cost pressure, growing energy demand, and geopolitical risk, this is a real differentiator,” Kelty said.

GM has spent billions of dollars in recent years to increase its research and development as well as battery cell production to achieve the exponential growth of all-electric vehicles that has not materialized as planned.

GM, through its Ultium Cells joint venture, currently has about 90 gigawatt hours of production capacity at two plants, one in Ohio and one in Tennessee. Ultium Cells in March announced a $70 million investment to begin production of LFP batteries for energy storage systems at its Tennessee plant.

Other automakers, including GM’s crosstown rival ford motorhas shifted to focusing on energy storage to help fill capacity at multibillion-dollar battery plants in the United States.

For GM customers, the ability to have an electric vehicle capable of sending power back to the grid during peak hours, or powering their homes, through the Detroit automaker’s energy storage system, can help reduce energy costs and grid usage.

GM said it is seeking partnerships with utility companies across the country to help bring such vehicle-to-grid services to customers. It’s already working with utility companies in California and Michigan.

U.S. residential electricity prices have risen 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 rise to about 19 cents per kilowatt-hour starting in March 2027, according to a recent forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

GM on Tuesday also announced an “Energy Card” aimed at smoother overall charging for electric vehicle customers, including when using Tesla Superchargers, and said all of its electric vehicles starting in the 2027 model year will include a standard charging port in North America.