Published , by Morgan Shaver
Published , by Morgan Shaver
General Motors (GM) has shared plans to begin offering energy storage and management services to both its residential and commercial customers through its new GM Energy service. Through GM Energy, the company will offer things like stationary storage batteries, solar panels, and hydrogen fuel cells, similar to what’s offered by companies like Tesla.
For those interested in digging deeper and checking out the company’s GM Energy services, GM will reportedly be bundling the existing Ultium Charge 360 public charging service with two additional units, Ultium Home and Ultium Commercial. In particular, Ultium Home will provide customers with things like stationary wall boxes. GM estimates it'll begin sales and installation of its Ultium Home boxes in late 2023.
Meanwhile, the commercial services for GM Energy will offer similar, yet larger storage units as well along with microgrids connected to GM-made hydrogen fuel cells. According to current reporting, businesses will be able to sell energy back to utilities during peak power consumption periods. Additionally, GM is teaming up with SunPower Corp to offer solar panels to its customers.
"We're getting into the entire ecosystem of energy management," said GM executive Travis Hester who heads the company’s EV Growth Operations in a recent interview, as quoted by Reuters. "Our competition in this space on the (automaker) side is really only Tesla, which is a strong energy management company. There are a lot of analogies you can draw with Tesla."
Hester went on to note that this is a new space for GM, but that it’s also an obvious step for the company given how GM already has core competencies in areas like vehicles and batteries.
For more on GM Energy, you can look over the details that have been provided thus far over on the official website for the upcoming energy services from General Motors. And for more on companies like GM and Tesla, be sure to check out some of our previous coverage including the U.S. Energy Department loaning GM $2.5 billion for battery manufacturing, and how a Tesla Megapack battery caused a fire at California’s PG&E storage facility.