GM & Shell cooperate on energy for GM customers
General Motors and Shell are collaborating to provide comprehensive energy solutions programs to GM’s customers and supply chain partners. This includes fixed-rate home energy plans backed by 100 per cent renewable energy resources.
The program from GM and Shell, through its wholly-owned subsidiary MP2 Energy, LLC is currently available for eligible owners of Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles in Texas.
The two companies have announced that this summer, owners of electric vehicles from GM brands will have the opportunity to select home energy plans that include the option for free overnight hours of EV charging. The energy and vehicle producing giants will also begin providing GM suppliers access to “a tailored suite of renewable energy products”. GM and Shell say that they expect to expand the residential and EV offerings across US markets in the future, without giving further details about when this will be available where.
“Shell is working across many sectors to help address greenhouse gas emissions and to serve as a partner for change,” said Glenn Wright, vice president of Renewables and Energy Solutions, Shell. “We see opportunities amidst the challenges of the energy transition, and we are excited to work with GM to provide options for consumers and businesses focused on their emissions impact.”
These opportunities and challenges were also addressed in Tesla’s last quarterly report. Tesla has taken the approach of providing energy through its division Energy Generation And Storage – stationary energy storage and solar roofs. According to Tesla, the current demand for the PowerWall home storage system is so high that they are now only delivered to solar customers – and only when production increases will the PowerWall “possibly” be made available again as a stand-alone product. Here Tesla specifically also refers to Texas – also focussed on in the offer being made available to GM customers with Shell. Here Tesla said: “The recent snowstorm in Texas and other blackout events continue to drive customers toward home energy storage solutions.”
Here, Elon Musk highlighted the foreseeable and enormous increase in demand for electricity with the electrification of transport while simultaneously moving household heating and cooling onto renewable energy. He pointed out that in order to meet this foreseeable demand, “It is very important to have solar factories at the local level of the house, in addition, it is important to have large battery storage at the utility level.”
However, unlike Tesla, GM is also providing ultra-small electric vehicles (and therefore more energy-saving) in China with its Hong Guang Mini EV with its joint venture with SAIC-Wuling – a sensible and clearly profitable move for countries where population density and available space make the individual production of renewable energy unrealistic. This is similarly a problem in Europe where the Hong Guang Mini EV is to be launched in the near future.
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