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GM Takes Intention At Tesla’s Power Storage Enterprise, Too




Tesla’s spiraling model popularity disaster has hit its EV gross sales so exhausting that the much-hyped Tesla Cybertruck was reportedly outsold by Common Motors’s GMC electrical Hummer in Q2. Now GM has noticed a possibility to horn in on Tesla’s Megapack utility scale power storage enterprise, too — with an help from none apart from Tesla co-founder and former CTO JB Straubel.

Common Motors Spots An Power Storage Alternative

There’s quite a lot of historical past to unpack right here, so let’s begin with the contemporary information first. On July 16, GM and Redwood Supplies introduced their intention to collaborate on utility-scale power storage methods within the US, aiming squarely not at EVs however on the burgeoning wants of the AI knowledge middle growth.

That’s an attention-grabbing flip of occasions for GM. Right here within the US, the EV market is considerably unsure today. The Republican majority in Congress determined to make the $7,500 EV tax credit score expire on September 30, elevating the specter of a doomslide into adverse gross sales territory for all EV makers, not simply Tesla. Nevertheless, if GM can efficiently market batteries for stationary power storage, it could possibly offset a number of the EV losses till the electrical mobility market — and the political state of affairs — each enhance.

In spite of everything, why let good power storage expertise go to waste? GM has been pitching its Ultium EV battery platform since 2019. Within the newest improvement, earlier this week, GM’s Ultium Cells enterprise with LG Power Resolution introduced its intention to commercialize new low-cost EV lithium-iron-phosphate batteries by late 2027.

The brand new settlement with Redwood Supplies comes nearly a month after Redwood introduced its new Redwood Power department, aimed toward utilizing new batteries and second-life EV batteries for “quick, low-cost energy-storage methods constructed to satisfy surging energy demand from AI knowledge facilities and different functions,” Redwood and GM said in a press launch that takes a shot throughout the bow of Tesla’s AI knowledge middle Megapack enterprise.

The brand new settlement requires the usage of GM’s second-life (aka used) EV batteries in addition to newly GM manufactured batteries, too. In a press assertion, GM and Redwood each emphasised that the brand new batteries can be Made within the USA batteries, going proper up towards Tesla’s domestically manufactured Megapack model (Megapacks are made in California, with a secondary facility in Nevada).

Kurt Kelty, VP of batteries, propulsion, and sustainability at GM, additionally chipped in his two cents. “The marketplace for grid-scale batteries and backup energy isn’t simply increasing, it’s turning into important infrastructure,” he stated in a press assertion saying the brand new settlement.

“Electrical energy demand is accelerating at an unprecedented tempo, pushed by AI and the fast electrification of every part from transportation to business,” added Redwood CEO JB Straubel. He based Redwood in 2017, shortly earlier than leaving his CTO place at Tesla, to hunt new alternatives within the lithium-ion battery recycling area.

New Life For Second Life EV Batteries

The brand new collaboration builds on a second-life EV battery collaboration between GM and Redwood, through which GM batteries have been deployed at a Redwood facility in Nevada to supply power storage for the AI infrastructure agency Crusoe. At 12MW/63MWh, the storage system is billed as the most important second-life battery system on this planet, and the most important microgrid system in North America, too.

Repurposing used EV batteries might look like a step downward from the glamorous universe of Tesla into the nuts-and-bolts world of waste administration, however cash talks. By 2023, Redwood assembled $4 billion in funding together with a $2 billion conditional mortgage assure from the US Division of Power.

Moreover, extracting lithium from spent batteries is simply a part of Redwood’s marketing strategy. Utilizing the lithium to make new battery parts is one other half. “We’re constructing an enormous (Airbus A380 for scale) cathode plant with greater than 1 million EVs/yr of capability at our Nevada Campus,” Straubel introduced final yr. “We’re decreasing each the development value and the construct time by way of bold and detailed engineering, specializing in progressive practices within the plant’s very design and improvement.”

“Cathode accounts for >50% of a battery cell’s value however right this moment, manufacturing is predicated completely outdoors of North America,” he added (see extra Redwood background right here).

Extra Power Storage Competitors For Tesla

Like Tesla, GM and Redwood are shifting previous an preliminary concentrate on EV batteries to take advantage of new alternatives within the stationary power storage enterprise. In Tesla’s case, the Megapack has been a lifesaver. As broadly reported right here and elsewhere, Tesla’s EV gross sales are sliding downwards in Europe, the US, and different key markets, however Megapack gross sales are booming.

On GM’s half, the brand new power storage enterprise might present the corporate with some monetary wiggle room till the present occupant of the White Home turns the reins of federal authorities over to extra accountable palms — peacefully this time, one hopes.

GM has not precisely been sitting round ready for the wheels of the subsequent presidential election cycle to start turning. On July 14, GM president Mark Reuss posted a recap the actions of his firm’s Ultium Cells enterprise beneath the headline, “From Tennessee to Michigan, GM is constructing a battery-powered future.”

“With the Ultium Cells websites in Spring Hill and Warren, Ohio, GM has the most important OEM battery cell manufacturing capability on this nation,” Reuss said, affirming GM’s intention to fabricate a number of totally different sorts of battery chemistries together with NCMA (nickel cobalt manganese aluminum) pouch cells in addition to the forthcoming LFP batteries and an LMR (lithium manganese wealthy) formulation.

“GM plans to be the primary firm to provide LMR prismatic battery cells at business scale. This development is vital to delivering the perfect mixture of vary, efficiency, and affordability for our EV clients,” Reuss added.

“Our experience in these three battery chemistries will allow us to scale manufacturing of lower-cost LMR and LFP cell applied sciences so we will produce each full-size electrical pickups and reasonably priced EVs just like the Chevrolet Bolt,” Reuss added once more for good measure, in case anybody wants an additional reminder that GM intends to promote extra EVs, not fewer, within the coming years even with out assist from the tax credit score.

Reuss additionally took the chance to refresh GM’s tune on EV gross sales. For the previous a number of years, GM has repeatedly boasted that it’s the #2 vendor of EVs within the US, second solely to business chief Tesla. As of July 14, that’s over. Reuss concluded his put up by asserting that GM is of the opinion that “we’re in a greater place than another automaker to steer the business, and the nation, on this street to the longer term.”

What do you assume, is the nation’s #2 automaker nipping on the heels of Tesla, or will Tesla stay on prime indefinitely?

Picture (cropped): In a web page torn out of the ebook of Tesla, GM has launched into a brand new utility-scale stationary power storage collaboration with the US EV battery recycling agency and cathode producer Redwood Supplies (courtesy of GM).


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