A GM sign is shown at a General Motors facility in Langhorne, Pa., on Oct. 16, 2019. Matt Rourke/AP Photo
General Motors on June 9 said it is working toward manufacturing sodium-ion batteries, pivoting from industry-standard lithium-ion battery architecture, in a bid to deliver large-scale, cost-effective energy grid storage systems for power-hungry data centers and other users.
The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker said its advanced battery research and development teams at the Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center in Warren, Michigan, have been advancing newer chemistries for electric vehicle batteries, including lithium manganese rich (LMR) cathodes and sodium-ion. The latter shares many architectural similarities with lithium-ion batteries, GM said, but unlike lithium, which is far more expensive and is mined in miniscule amounts domestically, sodium is a widely sourced mineral that could create easier pathways to creating grid-scale energy storage systems.
