GM Wants to Help You Harness Your EV's Power and Turn It Into Cash

pcmag.com:

General Motors this week announced a new business unit called GM Energy, which will expand the use cases for its Ultium battery platform to power homes and public buildings, and possibly help you make money.

GM initially built the Ultium(Opens in a new window) battery packs to power EVs. Now, the company will repackage them in products that can power homes (Ultium Home) and public buildings (Ultium Commercial).

Ultium Home, a competitor to Tesla's Powerwall, will function like a generator, using energy from the electrical grid or off-grid methods like solar panels.

GM also announced that the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV pickup truck will be the company's first vehicle to support bi-directional charging, or the ability to use a vehicle's charge for non-driving purposes. A partnership with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) to allow "vehicle-to-home," or V2H, bi-directional charging with a subset of PG&E customers will start in 2023.

Another bi-directional charging option is vehicle-to-grid (V2G). GM is placing a big bet on both versions to augment the electrical grid as automakers convert their lineups to fully electric. Recent threats of blackouts in California and the UK(Opens in a new window), as well as Texas's grid failure(Opens in a new window) in February 2021, are evidence of the need for better solutions, even in a world where EVs are still just a fraction of total car sales (~5%). According to a video on the GM Energy website(Opens in a new window), the US has more blackouts than any developed country.

"Customers will be able to simply and efficiently manage their energy consumption through GM's energy software applications," GM says(Opens in a new window). "GM has already enrolled EV customers in managed