GM is using its Ultium battery tech for a lot more than EVs

I was not kidding when I informed you that GM is likely all-in on Ultium, the battery engineering guiding the firm’s electrification attempts, not to mention an complete generation of Chevy and GMC EVs. On Tuesday, the automaker introduced that it is expanding its portfolio into vitality administration companies — imagine significant stationary batteries to keep rooftop-created photo voltaic electricity on a home or enterprise — with its new spin-off business enterprise, GM Electricity.

The new venture will be comprised of three smaller ones: Ultium Household, Ultium Commercial and Ultium Charge 360, presenting “remedies ranging from bi-directional charging, auto-to home (V2H) and car or truck-to-grid (V2G) purposes, to stationary storage, solar merchandise, software program apps, cloud administration resources, microgrid answers, hydrogen gas cells and additional,” according to GM’s announcement on Tuesday. 

The new organization will be partnering with a range of set up firms and utilities in the power industry. For illustration, GM will be doing the job with SunPower to create and sector a integrated home energy storage process that incorporates an electric vehicle with solar panels and battery banking institutions to allow uncomplicated Auto-to-Property (V2H) electricity transfers. GM strategies to have that dwelling strength method prepared for sale together with the launch of the EV Silverado next fall, 2023. 

Moreover, GM Vitality has partnered with California’s Pacific Gas and Electric powered utility for a further V2H pilot application that will enable you operate your home appliances off of your EV’s battery all through blackouts. Eventually, the business plans to insert V2G (Car or truck-to-Grid) abilities, which will permit you to offer excessive power produced by the solar panels back to your community utility. 

For organizations, Ultium Professional may perhaps support relieve the transition to an electrified fleet. Many these types of present GM shoppers, “have fleets of automobiles are wanting to electrify their fleets, but are not seriously knowledgeable of how to established up the charging infrastructure, how to regulate their strength,” Mark Bole, vice president and Head of V2X Battery Answers at GM stated all through an embargoed press briefing final 7 days. “And so, not only do we occur in as a hardware and program provider, but in a sense, genuinely, as a strategic advisor for these professional customers.”

“There are much more power failures in the US than any other country in the industrialized environment,” Travis Hester, vice president of GM EV Expansion Functions, included. “There ended up 25,000 blackouts in California by itself final yr, over 15 and a half billion pounds of lost commerce, just in California. So when you search at the numbers, there is a motivation — and we’re viewing it really clearly from commercial shoppers achieving out to us and asking us for help to deal with some of these complications.”

GM is also transferring its community charging station network, Ultium Demand 360, over to GM Electricity. Demand 360 launched in 2021 in Washington, Florida and California. GM partnered with Blink Charging, ChargePoint, EV Link, EVgo, FLO, Greenlots and SemaConnect to streamline their collective 60,000-plug community of 350 kW Level 3 DC fast chargers and offer “far more seamless entry” to motorists. The automaker crafted upon that network this earlier July, asserting a 500-station “coast-to-coastline” enlargement in partnership with EVGo. In all, GM hopes to have 2,700 these EV rapid charging stations across the US and Canada underneath its Ultium Demand 360 banner by 2025.