GM enters energy storage market, targets mass production by 2028

General Motors has teamed up with a startup to enter the energy storage system market, pivoting its battery business toward AI-driven power demand as electric vehicle sales growth slows.

According to Bloomberg and the Financial Times, GM held a briefing in San Francisco on Tuesday and announced a partnership with startup Peak Energy to develop stationary energy storage systems. The two companies plan to jointly develop large-scale grid batteries that store electricity during off-peak hours — such as late at night — and supply it during periods of high demand.

GM also plans to expand a system that lets EV customers sell back a portion of the electricity stored in their vehicles to the grid while charging at home, directing that power to high-demand consumers such as AI data centers.

Sterling Anderson, GM's chief product officer, said in a company blog post that energy has become the bottleneck of modern innovation. "In past technology transitions, slow processors or internet speeds were the limiting factor — today, the bottleneck is energy," Anderson said. "We're developing ESS batteries for large-scale power consumption and taking steps to use our EVs as a means of grid support."

GM's move into energy storage follows Ford, which earlier announced a technology partnership with CATL — the world's largest battery manufacturer — to enter the ESS market. Ford plans to invest a total of $2 billion (about 3 trillion won) in the venture.

The shift by automakers toward energy storage is a response to slower-than-expected EV growth. As the electric vehicle business has stalled, battery operations have struggled to find momentum, while the AI investment boom has sent power consumption at data centers surging. Automakers are betting that energy storage systems can bridge that mismatch and generate new revenue.

According to market research firm BloombergNEF, demand for grid-scale batteries across the United States is expected to more than double to over 100 gigawatt-hours by around 2030.

GM and Peak Energy have set a target to begin full-scale mass production of advanced sodium-ion batteries in 2028.