GM says V2G technology will turn electric vehicles into grid energy resources

General Motors unveiled its electrification and energy technology strategy at the "GM Empower" event in San Francisco on Tuesday, outlining plans to expand the company's energy ecosystem.

The company said the event was designed to showcase its battery and energy strategy in response to surging electricity demand and growing strain on energy infrastructure.

"We are at an inflection point where we need to rethink the relationship between mobility, computing and global energy infrastructure," said Sterling Anderson, GM's executive vice president of global product and chief product officer. "GM wants to help ease the burden on the power grid by combining grid-scale storage with EV-based distributed energy resources."

Alongside updates on V2G technology, GM introduced a new service called Energy Pass that simplifies the public charging experience. Energy Pass supports public charging search, access and payment within GM brand apps in the United States and Canada.

GM said it plans to consolidate what had been a fragmented public charging process into a single GM user experience, making charging more intuitive and consistent for electric vehicle customers.

In the commercial energy space, GM also outlined a path to extending its battery leadership beyond vehicles. "We are broadening our energy storage technology portfolio through next-generation sodium-ion batteries for grid-scale energy storage systems and second-life battery applications," a GM official said.

Through the announcements, GM said it plans to extend the value of electrification beyond the vehicle itself — expanding its technology reach into batteries, charging and energy storage, and building an integrated energy ecosystem that connects home energy systems, public charging and commercial energy storage systems.

Meanwhile, GM has been accelerating its electrification push in global markets. After introducing its hands-free driver assistance system Super Cruise internationally, the automaker has also brought the technology to the South Korean market through the Cadillac Escalade IQ.