General Motors on June 9 said it is working toward manufacturing sodium-ion batteries, pivoting from industry-standard lithium-ion battery architecture, in a bid to deliver large-scale, cost-effective energy grid storage systems for power-hungry data centers and other users.
The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker said its advanced battery research and development teams at the Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center in Warren, Michigan, have been advancing newer chemistries for electric vehicle batteries, including lithium manganese rich (LMR) cathodes and sodium-ion. The latter shares many architectural similarities with lithium-ion batteries, GM said, but unlike lithium, which is far more expensive and is mined in miniscule amounts domestically, sodium is a widely sourced mineral that could create easier pathways to creating grid-scale energy storage systems.
“We can apply the battery expertise GM has built in cell design, prototyping and industrialization to help move this chemistry forward,” GM vice president of battery and sustainability Kurt Kelty said.
“Our next-generation sodium-ion cell development will drive energy density higher, with the potential to outperform more mature chemistries, including [lithium iron phosphate], over time. In a market increasingly shaped by cost pressure, energy demand growth and geopolitical risk, that’s a real differentiator.”
GM is entering a space long occupied by Tesla, which began making batteries for energy storage in 2015, many of which come from its lithium ferro phosphate (LFP) Gigafactory in Northern Nevada. Tesla’s Megapack industrial storage batteries are already operating in more than 65 countries.
Ford Motor Company entered the battery storage space earlier this year with the announcement of Ford Energy, a new subsidiary dedicated to battery energy storage systems (BESS) for data centers, utilities, and large industrial customers. Ford has invested $3 billion in its BlueOval Battery Park in Marshall, Michigan and plans to develop at least 20 gigawatts of battery storage annually beginning in late 2027.
GM said its partnership with Peak Energy to deliver large-scale storage systems—often as large as a 20-foot shipping container—is backed by strategic investment from GM Ventures. Sodium-ion batteries have the potential for widespread BESS adoption due to their lower complexity versus other battery architectures, Kelty noted.
Sodium-ion batteries can perform across a wider range of temperatures, so they don’t require active cooling systems that complicate battery hardware requirements and can lead to increased maintenance or potential for battery failure, he said.
“Peak’s energy storage platform is already demonstrating how sodium-ion’s strengths can translate into lower costs and greater reliability,” Kelty said.
“For stationary storage operators, that is a meaningful advantage. They are looking for dependable assets that are safe and require less intervention and achieve lower total operating costs—exactly the kind of performance profile that makes sodium-ion so well suited to grid-scale applications.”
GM also highlighted its collaboration with battery recycler Redwood Materials, which is deploying nearly 10,000 GM batteries into energy infrastructure, including the Crusoe AI data center on Redwood Materials’ campus at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center east of Reno, Nevada. GM will also use second-life batteries to provide 7.2 megawatt-hours of power at one of its Michigan plants, saving $3 million in utility costs over the life of the installation.