While U.S. electric-vehicle demand falls behind much of the world, demand for its battery energy stationary storage, or BESS, is on the rise, and automakers are getting in on the action.

According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence’s second-quarter BESS Forecast, global data center BESS demand is expected to increase by over 160% through 2030, and it expects nearly half of it to come from the U.S. That would put the U.S. grid BESS capacity ahead of Europe but behind China.

The demand for BESS comes from the growing artificial intelligence data center segment, Benchmark said. Battery storage can assist data centers in various day-to-day and backup operations, according to Aurora Energy Research. Research and statistics platform The Global Statistics reported that as of March the U.S. hosted over 4,000 data centers.

Some automakers are embracing the shift from EV production to battery storage. 

In May, Ford launched a subsidiary, Ford Energy, which will provide U.S.-assembled BESS for utilities, data centers and large industrial and commercial customers in the states. It plans to deploy at least 20 gigawatt hours, or 20 billion watt-hours of electricity, annually, and the first customer deliveries are planned for late 2027. 

General Motors subsidiary, GM Energy, has partnerships with SunPower and Redwood Materials to supply BESS modules for power grid support.