GM Partners With Peak Energy to Develop Sodium-Ion Batteries for Data Centers and Grid Storage

General Motors announced plans Tuesday to develop next-generation sodium-ion batteries for grid-scale energy storage, partnering with Denver-based startup Peak Energy as part of a broader push into the data center and energy storage markets.

Kurt Kelty, GM's vice president of battery and sustainability, said in a blog post that "sodium-ion-powered energy storage systems have the potential to operate without active cooling and with much less system complexity." He added that the next-generation cells could "outperform more mature chemistries, including LFP, over time."

The automaker expects the collaboration with Peak Energy to yield sodium-ion cells for customer use after 2028. Peak Energy, founded in 2023, counts former employees of Tesla, Lockheed Martin, and battery developer Northvolt among its leadership team, according to its website. GM declined to comment on the financial terms of the partnership.

At a foundational level, sodium-ion batteries function similarly to lithium-ion batteries, but GM says the chemistry can perform across a wider range of temperatures and for more charge cycles. Eliminating the need for active cooling could reduce both upfront and operating costs for large energy storage deployments — a factor the company said matters as demand from AI-driven data center buildouts accelerates.

The sodium-ion push is one part of a multi-chemistry strategy GM is pursuing simultaneously. The automaker is also reusing decommissioned EV battery packs for stationary energy storage in partnership with Redwood Materials, and it is producing lower-cost lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, battery cells through a joint venture with LG Energy Solution. GM described LFP as a near-term solution while positioning sodium-ion as its longer-term differentiator.

GM's Ultium Cells joint venture currently operates approximately 90 gigawatt hours of production capacity across two plants — one in Ohio and one in Tennessee. In March, Ultium Cells announced a $70 million investment to begin producing LFP batteries for energy storage systems at the Tennessee facility.

Kelty framed the sodium-ion effort as a response to structural market pressures. "In a market increasingly shaped by cost pressure, energy demand growth, and geopolitical risk, that's a real differentiator," he said.

Alongside the battery announcements, GM detailed expanded vehicle-to-grid capabilities for its EV owners, allowing those vehicles to return energy to the electric grid during peak demand hours or to power a home. The company said it is seeking utility partnerships nationwide and is already working with utilities in California and Michigan.

The moves come as residential electricity prices in the United States have climbed sharply. Prices rose by nearly 48% between January 2020 and March 2026, moving from 12.76 cents per kilowatt-hour to 18.83 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to a forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Prices are expected to reach approximately 19 cents per kilowatt-hour starting in March 2027.

GM also announced an "Energy Pass" designed to simplify public charging access for EV owners, including at Tesla Supercharger stations. The company said all electric vehicles it produces as of the 2027 model year will include a North American Charging Standard charging port.

GM is not alone in pivoting battery capacity toward energy storage. Crosstown rival Ford Motor has made a similar shift, redirecting output from its U.S. battery plants toward stationary storage applications as EV demand growth has come in below earlier projections.

With sodium-ion cell availability targeted for after 2028, the commercial viability of GM's bet on the chemistry — and its ability to capture a share of the infrastructure spending tied to AI expansion — remains a question that the next several years of development will determine.

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