Ford and General Motors spent years trying to catch Tesla in electric cars. Now they are chasing it into a different, potentially more lucrative arena: turning car batteries into a grid-scale energy business that could be worth tens of billions of dollars. As demand for new EVs cools, the real money may lie in selling storage, software and services built on the same batteries that were supposed to power a clean-driving revolution.
Instead of simply building vehicles, these companies are positioning themselves as energy players, stringing together EV packs, stationary batteries and smart charging systems into virtual power plants. The race is no longer just about who sells the most electric SUVs, it is about who controls the battery networks that keep data centers humming and lights on when the grid is strained.
The EV slowdown that pushed Detroit toward the grid
The pivot starts with a hard reality: the EV boom has not matched the industry’s most optimistic forecasts. I see that in the way Ford Motor Co and its peers have been forced to reassess aggressive production plans, shelving factories and delaying models that only a few years ago were touted as the future of the business. When Ford Motor Co disclosed that it would take $19.5 billion in charges to scale back its electric ambitions, it signaled that the old volume-driven EV strategy was no longer tenable.
Now that the first wave of early adopters has bought in, the mass market is proving more cautious, and that has left automakers with battery capacity and expertise that need a new outlet. Jan and other industry voices have framed this as a structural shift rather than a temporary pause, a recognition that pure EV sales will not, on their own, deliver the returns investors expect. Instead of doubling down on ever more models, Detroit is redirecting capital toward energy storage, grid services and software that can monetize batteries over a decade or more.
From automaker to energy company
Automakers are increasingly investing in energy storage businesses as a way to turn that EV slowdown into an opportunity. Ford, for example, said in December that it planned to expand its role in large-scale storage projects, using its battery know-how to serve utilities and commercial customers rather than just drivers. Jan and other executives see this as a way to tap growing demand from data centers and other power-hungry infrastructure, a trend that has already drawn in Automakers like Ford and GM alongside Tesla.
In practice, that means repurposing EV battery platforms into containerized packs that can sit next to a server farm or a substation, soaking up cheap power at night and feeding it back when demand spikes. It also means selling long term service contracts, not just hardware, so that the revenue from a single battery can stretch across years of grid balancing and backup power. By leaning into this role, Ford and GM are following Tesla’s lead in treating batteries as infrastructure, not just components, and positioning themselves as indispensable partners to utilities that are scrambling to keep up with electrification.
Vehicle-to-grid: turning parked cars into power plants
The most radical piece of this new business model is vehicle-to-grid technology, which treats every parked EV as a potential energy asset. At its core, Vehicle-to-grid systems allow cars to not only draw electricity from the grid but also send it back when needed, effectively turning driveways and parking lots into distributed power plants. Frequently Asked Questions about this setup tend to focus on whether it will degrade batteries or complicate daily driving, but the underlying Answer from engineers is that smart software can manage charging cycles to protect both the pack and the owner’s schedule.
For automakers, the appeal is that they can earn money every time a connected car participates in a grid event, even if that vehicle is years past its initial sale. What began as a clever feature for backup home power is evolving into a platform where thousands of vehicles respond in unison to grid signals, stabilizing frequency or shaving peak demand. That is why companies are racing to embed bidirectional charging hardware and apps into new models, so they can capture a slice of the fees utilities are willing to pay for fast, flexible capacity.
A global market measured in tens of billions
There is real money on the table if this vision scales. Analysts tracking Global Markets Research for vehicle-to-grid systems describe a sector driven by EV Adoption, Government Incentives and smart grid upgrades, with growth curves that outpace traditional auto sales. As more countries push utilities to integrate renewables, the need for flexible storage that can respond in seconds, not hours, becomes a central planning assumption rather than a niche experiment.
Other forecasters see the same trajectory. One detailed Market Size and analysis pegs the Study Period from 2020 to 2030 and highlights how the Vehicle and Grid interface is expected to mature rapidly in the 2025 to 2030 window. Looking further out, projections suggest the vehicle-to-grid market could reach US$ 65.84 billion by 2035, as Automotive OEMs simultaneously unlock software-defined energy features across fleets while hardware providers scale production. That kind of revenue potential explains why legacy automakers are willing to retool their strategies around batteries, even as they trim back EV lineups.
Detroit’s battery pivot and Tesla’s head start
Major US automakers are not making this shift in a vacuum. Industry voices like Alenya, a Research Analyst who tracks solid-state car batteries, have been highlighting how the race for long-range #electricautomobiles is converging with the race to build better storage for the grid. Jan and other strategists inside Detroit’s boardrooms now talk about battery chemistry, cycle life and software integration as core competitive levers, not just engineering details buried in spec sheets.
Tesla, of course, has a head start, with its Powerwall and Megapack products already deployed at scale and tightly integrated with its vehicles. Ford and GM are trying to close that gap by leaning on their manufacturing muscle and dealer networks, pitching fleets of trucks and SUVs that can double as mobile batteries. If they succeed, the center of gravity in the auto industry will shift from selling units to managing energy flows, and the companies that once defined themselves by horsepower will be judged on how well they orchestrate electrons instead.
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