Riding the AI wave to "survive through curve"! General Motors Company (GM.US) follows in Ford's (F.US.) footsteps to break into the electric grid energy storage track.

General Motors Company (GM.US) is entering the stationary power storage market through a partnership with the startup company Peak Energy Technologies. This move not only seizes the growth opportunity driven by AI demand but also follows the investor frenzy - this frenzy has recently driven up the stock price of its competitor, Ford Motor Company (F.US). General Motors Company announced on Tuesday at an event in San Francisco that they will be developing batteries with Peak Energy that can store energy for the grid during non-peak hours. In addition, General Motors Company is taking steps to allow their existing electric vehicle consumers to store energy for the grid when charging at home. This initiative is expected to help utility companies meet the power demands brought by AI data centers. Both General Motors and Ford have invested billions of dollars in the electric vehicle race, but have faced challenges due to lower-than-expected consumer demand in the US market. Now, both companies are taking a similar path: following Ford's lead, General Motors has decided to explore new avenues by leveraging the storage demand brought by AI data centers, providing complementary storage solutions for the overburdened US power grid, and turning the development bottleneck of electric vehicle business into growth opportunities. Sterling Anderson, Chief Product Officer of General Motors Company, stated in a blog post: "In the past, major technological advances were often limited by processor speed or internet bandwidth. Today, the real bottleneck is energy. We are developing large-scale energy storage system batteries for utility companies and large power users, while using our networked electric vehicles to feed power back into local residential grids." General Motors Company's announcement comes after Ford's stock price recorded the largest monthly increase in 17 years. An analyst on Wall Street views Ford's new energy storage business as a potential beneficiary of the AI frenzy, further driving up its stock price. Ford has invested $2 billion in its energy storage business, including converting an electric car battery factory into one that produces large-scale storage batteries, using technology licensed from Contemporary Amperex Technology. According to compiled data, demand for grid storage batteries in the US is expected to double by 2030, exceeding 100 gigawatt-hours. General Motors Company's investment in energy storage is relatively small but has growth potential. GM Ventures, a subsidiary, has undisclosed investments in Peak Energy. The two companies will jointly develop sodium-ion batteries. Compared to the lithium-ion technology used in many electric vehicles, sodium-ion batteries are more suitable for stationary storage. These batteries discharge faster and can provide short-term, high-intensity power output. The primary material, sodium, is abundant and inexpensive. In addition, sodium-ion batteries do not require cobalt - a metal that often comes from mines accused of using child labor, and sodium-ion batteries have a lower risk of fire. Landon Mossburg, CEO of Peak Energy, stated that the company was founded just three years ago, with revenues expected only at $10 million this year, but with a backlog of $1.1 billion in orders, revenue is expected to increase to $100 million by 2027. Kurt Kelty, General Motors Company's Battery Vice President, said that as this startup grows, General Motors and Peak Energy can produce sodium-ion batteries in General Motors' existing factories or through a joint manufacturing facility. He noted that General Motors Company has postponed building a battery factory in Indiana and may use that factory or other existing facilities in the future. Kelty stated: "Our approach is different from Ford's. They are retrofitting existing factories, while we are using our technological advantage to develop the best cell chemistries for this application." General Motors Company is also partnering with Redwood Materials, a battery recycling company founded by JB Straubel, co-founder of Tesla, Inc., to repurpose old electric vehicle batteries for grid and commercial storage. In March of this year, General Motors Company and its Korean battery partner, LG Energy Solution, announced plans to shift the direction of a factory in Tennessee to produce fixed storage batteries for the grid and commercial use. The factory is jointly owned by their joint venture, Ultium Cells LLC. Ford CEO Jim Farley stated last month that demand for their storage batteries is strong and production lines are expected to start next year. General Motors Company is also actively promoting more utility companies to allow power to flow bi-directionally between their electric vehicles and the grid. Vehicles are idle 95% of the time and can be used as storage devices when not in use, charging during off-peak hours at night. However, the widespread adoption of this so-called "bi-directional charging" technology will take time. Consumers need to install hardware equipment costing around $5,000 in their garages. While some utility companies provide incentives covering most of the costs, General Motors Company still needs to convince vehicle owners to participate one by one. These initiatives by General Motors Company indicate that car manufacturers are trying to salvage their huge investments in electric vehicles - proving that even before the Republican Party in the US canceled the $7,500 electric vehicle purchase tax credit, these cars were not selling well for Americans. General Motors Company had planned to have the capacity to produce 1 million electric vehicles annually by 2025, but last year only sold 170,000 in the US. Despite being second to Tesla, Inc. in deliveries, limited sales mean that after launching over a dozen different electric vehicle models, General Motors Company's electric vehicle business is still experiencing losses. Following this, General Motors Company announced a plan to convert an electric pickup truck factory in Detroit's suburbs into producing gasoline-powered SUVs, such as the Cadillac Escalade.