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Volvo, BMW Look At Big Picture For EVs

Volvo and BMW are showing ways that electric vehicles can be used for more than just driving. 

Stationary electric cars have the potential to power houses and appliances -- and also return power to the energy grid.

Volvo is launching a new business unit to capitalize on that potential and …

Polestar Is Betting On This Bi-Directional Charging Tech

Polestar plans to test vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging in Sweden, in cooperation with local utilities, using Polestar 3 models.

The EV maker is hoping fleets of EVs will be part of a power ecosystem in the future that will allow them to use their batteries to automatically store and dispense power, in connection to the grid, based on grid needs, with owners monetizing the batteries in their EVs in this manner.

Polestar plans a similar V2G pilot project in California, in collaboration with the California Energy Commission.

Vehicle-to-grid charging has long been seen as one of the next steps in the evolution of smart homes, allowing EVs to transfer power back to the grid when it is advantageous to do so, and to charge during off-peak hours. But until recently, there haven't been enough compatible EVs with bi-directional charging to attempt such a project at scale.

Now, Polestar is undertaking a large-scale vehicle-to-grid (V2G) project in Sweden that will connect a sizable fleet of Polestar 3 SUVs, allowing them to serve as a Virtual Power Plant (VPP).

The project is aimed at allowing owners to monetize their EVs while they're parked at home, all done automatically without any management on the part of owners, with a cloud based VPP calculating the collective capacity of all the connected batteries and performing charging or discharging based on demand.

"Vehicle-to-grid has the potential to not only benefit individual customers, but whole communities. The average car is parked 90% of the time," said Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO.

Polestar paints the process as completely free of intervention from owners. All they'll need to do is plug in their EV at home, and let the VPP manage the rest. At least in theory.

Polestar will undertake this pilot project along with Swedish National Grid authority Svenska kraftnät, regional energy distributor Vattenfall Eldistribution, Chalmers University of Technology, home charging provider Easee, and with local grid owner Göteborg Energi Nät. So quite a few partners are needed to make this work even on an experimental scale.

A similar project is planned for California, where Polestar will collaborate with non-profit energy R&D institute EPRI and the California Energy Commission.

"With the bi-directional charging capabilities of Polestar 3 and the Polestar VPP, we can explore business models and community solutions that can unlock the true potential of V2G and enable owners to support the energy transition when they don't need their car for driving," Ingenlath added.

However, it's still too early in most countries to get ready for thousands of EVs providing power back to the grid when advantageous. In the present day, bi-directional charging is far more useful for V2H (vehicle-to-home), V2L (vehicle-to-load), and V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) charging.

V2G charging, on the other hand, requires collaboration from all stakeholders of an energy grid, as well as some infrastructure investments. In addition, most EV owners have been more interested in getting power from the grid into their EVs—not the other way around. Consumers will only sign on for something like this if they are assured to have more juice in their EVs in the morning than when they parked them the previous night.

Natural market forces also have to play some role in the investment into V2G technology, as this can't be another case of something you only see in science-fiction films that seems neat, but may not be all that economical.

EV owners also have to be on board, to some degree, with subjecting their vehicles to constant charge and discharge cycles in the name of some savings. As we know, EV battery lifespans are quite finite.

Will we see home energy storage become commonplace in the second half of this decade in households with EVs, or will this process take longer? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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Volvo Cars Launches New Business Where Your Car Can Give Power To The Grid And Your Home

Volvo Cars has launched Volvo Cars Energy Solutions, a new business unit that will offer energy storage and charging-related technology and services.

The Swedish car maker says electric cars and their batteries can do much more than eliminate tailpipe emissions, as they also have the potential to power homes, appliances and even return power to the energy grid.

Volvo Cars says bi-directional charging is a technology that allows an electric car to give back extra battery power to a compatible grid, helping to balance the grid during peak hours and reducing the need for fossil-generated electricity. 

"Our new flagship, the fully electric EX90, will be the first Volvo car equipped with all the necessary hardware and, over time, software, to enable bi-directional charging and direct energy storage from solar," says the manufacturer.

Together with Göteborg Energi Nät AB, the local grid company in Gothenburg, Volvo Cars is launching a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) pilot programme that aims to test V2G technology on the local energy grid and in a home environment with real customers. 

The pilot study deliberately uses a low-cost alternating current wallbox charger, as this should help accelerate widespread adoption of the technology.

The project aims to gain acceptance from the grid company involved, while also demonstrating to other grid companies that V2G programmes can provide tangible benefits.

As Volvo Cars aims to be a fully electric car company by 2030, the car maker believes it will bring "millions of electric Volvo cars on the roads in the coming years". 

"Our engineers have calculated that the total battery capacity of that fleet will reach around 50 GWh by mid-decade. 

"While these cars will use several TWh in electricity each year, this energy consumption is flexible and can be moved in time via smart charging.

"At the same time, data from our Volvo fleet shows that the average daily drive in Europe uses less than 10 kWh, while 90% of all daily drives use less than 20 kWh. 

"This means there is ample spare battery capacity left that can be used for other purposes, with the possibility of both financial benefits for our customers and significant climate benefits."

"With bi-directional charging, you can use your car battery as an extra energy supply, for example to provide power to the grid, your home, other electric devices or another electric Volvo car," says Volvo Cars Energy Solutions head Alexander Petrofski.

Volvo Car South Africa says the EX90 will make its debut in South Africa next year, along with the smaller electric EX30.

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