GM plans to sell energy storage batteries as a flagship EV

General Motors plans to start making large batteries, the company said on Tuesday, joining Tesla, Ford Motor and other automakers in pushing for a growing market and offsetting slower sales of electric vehicles in the United States.

The batteries, which can be the size of shipping containers, store excess energy from solar panels, wind turbines and other energy sources. Utilities, data centers, and other large energy consumers use them for backup power or to handle fluctuations in electricity supply or demand.

Tesla has been selling batteries since 2015. Ford said last year it would convert a factory in Kentucky to make large batteries after it stopped making batteries for electric cars at the plant because car sales fell short of expectations.

Making the storage batteries, which Tesla and other companies also make in smaller sizes for homes, could help automakers get a better return on the investment they put into battery factories.

GM and other U.S. automakers have scaled back production of electric vehicles after Congress last year eliminated tax incentives that could be worth up to $7,500. Sales have plummeted, forcing GM, Ford, Stellantis and Honda to report billions of dollars in losses from investments in electric vehicles that are now unprofitable.

At the same time, most automotive executives expect electric vehicles to gradually replace gasoline or diesel vehicles. Sales of battery-powered models in most of the rest of the world are soaring due to rising fuel prices caused by the war in Iran.

“We believe electric cars are the future,” Mary Barra, GM’s chief executive, told “NBC Nightly News” last week, adding that buyers will determine the pace of change.

GM plans to produce large batteries whose main active ingredient is sodium, a different approach from Ford or Tesla. Sodium, often obtained from soda, is much cheaper and easier to process than lithium, the main component of most accumulators and batteries for electric cars. Sodium-ion batteries also do not require complex cooling and heating systems to operate safely and efficiently.

“In this market, it’s all about price,” Kurt Kelty, GM’s vice president who oversees the battery business, said in an interview.

But the technology needs to be refined and won’t be ready for mass production until 2028, Mr Kelty said. GM, which is working with Peak Energy, a maker of sodium-ion storage systems based in the San Francisco Bay Area, has not decided where it will make the battery, he said.

Sodium-ion batteries are too large and heavy for use in most vehicles, but that may change in four or five years as the technology improves, Kelty said. “We’re at the very beginning of the sodium ion phase, like how much it can reduce costs and how much performance can improve.”

GM also said it will release software updates that will allow some of its electric vehicles to be used to send power to electric grids. Owners of electric Chevrolets, including the Silverado pickup and the Equinox and Blazer sport utility vehicles, as well as several Cadillac models, could make money by allowing electric companies to draw power from the cars and trucks when they were plugged into a home charger.

GM has already sold about 250,000 vehicles capable of the feature, the company said.

The technology will “ultimately put money in our customers’ back pockets over time,” said Wade Sheffer, vice president of GM Energy. On Tuesday, he urged energy companies to take advantage of the growing number of vehicles that energy providers can use to balance the supply and demand of electricity.

Tesla also offers vehicle-to-grid functionality on its Cybertruck pickup, and the Ford F-150 Lightning has similar capabilities. But U.S. electronics companies, which tend to be slow to adopt new technologies, have launched only small pilot projects to test the use of electric vehicles in this way.

GM also said Tuesday it will update its electric car software to make it easier for drivers to use public charging stations. Drivers should no longer need to use apps on their phones to start charging at many stations, including those operated by Tesla. They can simply plug their cars into compatible stations and drive away.

The overall goal is to make electric car ownership more affordable and convenient, Mr. Kelty said. Range, cost and charging “are the three big things that are always issues with electric cars,” he said. “That’s what we’re really after.”