How Car Companies Like GM and Ford Are Now Selling Energy Storage

General Motors and Ford are moving beyond making vehicles. They are building energy management platforms — systems that store and distribute power — using expertise and infrastructure developed for electric vehicles.

GM created an Energy business unit in October 2022, launching products called Ultium Home and Ultium Commercial. The announcement described an ecosystem for managing power: two-way charging (where power flows from the car back to a home or grid), solar products, battery storage, and microgrids — local power networks that can operate independently from the main grid.

Ford took a parallel step. It is converting an electric vehicle factory in Glendale, Kentucky to produce battery storage units at scale, aiming for at least 20 gigawatt-hours per year. That's enough capacity to power roughly 2 million homes for a day.

The Battery Technology Advantage

For these energy platforms to be profitable, batteries need to be cheaper and more efficient. GM invested in a battery materials company called Mitra Chem in August 2023, focusing on iron-based cathode materials — the part of a battery that stores energy. Using iron instead of cobalt or nickel cuts costs, holds up better in heat, and lasts longer. These traits matter just as much for grid storage as they do for cars.

Ford has added battery technology across its vehicle range. Its Transit van uses a battery pack to assist the engine during acceleration, while smaller vehicles like the Puma recover energy when braking. These are stepping stones toward full electrification and demonstrate the battery management skills Ford is applying to stationary storage.

Why Retool Factories for Storage

Automakers possess two assets that make energy storage attractive: manufacturing expertise and factory space. A plant that builds EV batteries can shift to building stationary batteries — the technology and processes overlap significantly. Ford's Glendale pivot shows how an existing investment can generate revenue in a new market.

GM also committed $918 million in January 2023 to upgrade U.S. plants for EV components, including batteries. This hedges their bet: keeping gas engine production while scaling up battery manufacturing gives them flexibility as the market evolves. Federal incentives for domestic battery production and grid upgrades make the timing attractive.

Making Vehicles Part of the Power Grid

GM has pledged to run all U.S. operations on renewable electricity by the end of 2025, a commitment it locked in through power purchase agreements in 2022. This is more than a sustainability goal — it gives GM credibility when selling energy storage products to customers who care about renewable power.

The company's vehicle-to-grid technology is the more powerful move. When an EV charges at off-peak hours (when power is cheap and plentiful) and discharges during peak demand, it acts as a distributed battery for the power grid. Owners could eventually earn money by letting the grid draw from their car's battery during shortages. In practice, the car sits idle most of the day; storing power for the grid uses that idle capacity.

The broader trend here echoes a pattern we've seen before. When telephone companies extended their networks into data centers and cloud services, they leveraged infrastructure built for one purpose into an adjacent market. The skills required to manage large, reliable systems transfer across domains. Automakers have the same option now.

Vehicle-to-home technology offers a more immediate appeal: if a storm knocks out the grid, an EV in the driveway can power a house overnight. As storms intensify and outages grow longer, this backup power capability becomes more valuable than a traditional standby generator.

Competing in a New Market

This pivot puts GM and Ford in competition with energy companies, battery specialists, and tech platforms — players they didn't compete with as car manufacturers. Success requires more than manufacturing scale and dealership networks. Automakers must master energy markets, grid operations, renewable energy contracts, and regulations that govern power utilities. These are different rule sets than automotive manufacturing.

Tesla demonstrated early that customers want integrated energy solutions — vehicles plus home batteries plus solar. GM and Ford are acknowledging that demand. Their advantage is manufacturing scale and existing relationships with millions of customers. Their disadvantage is that grid operations and energy software are unfamiliar domains.

The critical question for the next few years is whether automakers can build or acquire the software, service, and regulatory expertise required to operate in energy markets as quickly as they can retool factories. Vehicle manufacturing and power utilities operate under different rules, serve different customer expectations, and face different technical demands. Failure to master these differences quickly would leave them dependent on partners or leave market share to companies that built these capabilities from the ground up.