General Motors (GM) and Redwood Materials have expanded their partnership to recycle electric vehicle (EV) batteries for stationary energy storage systems.

This collaboration includes both used and new batteries from GM.

Repurposed second-life EV batteries from GM are currently used at Redwood’s headquarters in Sparks, Nevada.

These batteries power a 12-megawatt microgrid that supplies electricity to a nearby data center operated by Crusoe, which serves 2,000 graphics processing units (GPUs).

The microgrid is part of Redwood’s energy storage division, which converts EV batteries into grid-scale storage solutions.

This expansion builds on the existing relationship between GM and Redwood.

🔗 Source: TechCrunch

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Second-life batteries emerge as hedge against volatile EV market growth

GM’s strategic partnership with Redwood represents a smart diversification as EV and energy storage markets move at different speeds.

While new EV sales dipped 6.3% in the second quarter of this year, energy storage installations set a new record in Q1 2025, growing 57% year-over-year1.

This divergence creates an opportunity for automakers to find alternative revenue streams for their battery production, particularly as energy storage demand shows consistent growth compared to more volatile EV adoption rates.

The repurposing of both new and used GM batteries for Redwood’s energy storage systems demonstrates how automakers can capitalize on the expanding energy storage market even when vehicle sales fluctuate.

This approach hedges against unpredictable EV market growth, particularly important as the industry faces uncertainty around tax credit eligibility changes scheduled for September 30.

2️⃣ The accelerating data center electricity demand creates urgent need for innovative storage

The GM-Redwood partnership directly addresses one of the fastest-growing electricity consumption challenges: powering data centers for AI and cloud computing.

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