GM electric vehicles use some of the largest batteries in the industry. Could your local power company use some of the stored power? The massive Ultium batteries could be ideal storage solutions for some power companies. GM could become the in-between company helping your EV become a power supplier to the electric grid.

How could your GM EV supply power to the electric grid?

The batteries in an electric vehicle store electricity, which is something most power companies don’t do. If a small amount of that energy is sent back to the power grid when needed, it could mean the end of power outage problems associated with overload.

Car and Driver tells us that GM has formed GM Energy which has a three-pronged approach to bringing power from EVs to the power grid. These three parts of the approach are:

• Ultium Home
• Ultium Commercial
• Ultium Charge 360

These three divisions could be a bridge to solving some of the energy problems in the future.

Why don’t energy companies have storage facilities?

For more than 100 years, electric utility companies have only provided enough power to meet demand. This means turning the output up or down as needed. Unfortunately, when it’s extremely hot outside, this can lead to a blackout as more residents use their air conditioning systems and overload the system. A backup electricity storage solution could put an end to these blackouts.

The movement toward EVs means more load on the electric grid?

We’ve already seen an overload of electric use in some areas. Only days after California announced the new plan to transition to 100% EVs by 2035, the state government requested that EV drivers only charge their vehicles as needed to avoid overloading the power grid. The new GM plan to bridge the gap could turn your EV into the power source for the electric grid.

The move toward EVs could be the electrical solution

Most EVs have large enough battery packs to power a home for up to seven days, which is great when a storm knocks out the power. As more drivers make the switch to electric vehicles, a larger network of EVs could provide two-way power to supply some of the power back to the electric grid to offset overload requirements.

How will GM EV drivers benefit when supplying some power back to the electric grid?

This new movement toward GM vehicles sending power back hasn’t completely worked out. Individual and commercial EV owners could receive lease payment discounts when GM supplies some of the power during charging back to the electric grid.

Individual EV owners shouldn’t see a large difference in the power of their vehicles and will likely still see a fully-charged vehicle when it’s time to drive. Commercial companies with a fleet of EVs will likely be a much larger supplier of battery power as needed by the electric utility company.

When will we see a rollout of this new GM plan?

The first products and services for this new GM Energy plan shouldn’t go into production until the fourth quarter of 2024 at the earliest. This could be pushed back if there are issues in funding, development, or application.

Will you allow GM to use your EV to supply power back to the electric grid? Most likely, you’ll want more information, which we should have next year.