MT Magazine September/October 2025

16

THE INTERNATIONAL ISSUE

FEATURE STORY

the same period, GM delivered 129,889 gasoline-powered Chevy Equinoxes. No, GM’s EV sales are not where they need to be to be a viable, contributing part of the company’s business. However, Barra is saying, in effect: Not yet. GM will continue with the technology. Despite shifting plans – such as with the Orion Assembly plant – Barra emphasizes that the company believes “the long-term future is profitable electric vehicle production.” In the meantime, GM will cleverly leverage its EV resources. For example, it has established an agreement with Redwood Materials, which recycles, refines, and remanufactures lithium ion batteries. In June, Redwood Materials established another business, Redwood Energy, to build low-cost energy storage systems for AI data centers. GM will manufacture batteries for Redwood Energy’s stationary energy systems and provide second-life battery packs from GM EVs – applying its production capacity to an entirely different field. In announcing the Redwood agreement, Kurt Kelty, vice president of batteries, propulsion, and sustainability at GM, said: “The market for grid-scale batteries and backup power isn’t just expanding, it’s becoming essential infrastructure. “Electricity demand is climbing, and it’s only going to accelerate. To meet that challenge, the U.S. needs energy storage solutions that can be deployed quickly, economically, and made right here at home. GM batteries can play an integral role. We’re not just making better cars – we’re shaping the future of energy resilience.”

Coda Back in the early 1990s, I participated in the Agile Manufacturing Enterprise Forum, which brought together people from more than 150 companies at the Iacocca Institute at Lehigh University. Participants ranged from Mars Candy to Boeing and Motorola to Texas Instruments. Our objective was to define how companies could be more capable in light of unpredictable, dynamic conditions. We recommended that manufacturers be able to rapidly reconfigure manufacturing operations (“online in just 18 months”) and establish partnerships. Redwood Materials founder and CEO JB Straubel illustrates these points well: “Both GM’s second-life EV batteries and new batteries can be deployed in Redwood’s energy storage systems, delivering fast, flexible power solutions and strengthening America’s energy and manufacturing independence.” After some 30 years, agility’s time, it seems, has come.

If you have any questions about this information, please contact Gary at vasilash@gmail.com.