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So far, few models can deliver V2G

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Technology still experimental, also faces regulatory

hurdles

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Could help to balance power grid, but needs to be managed

By Nick Carey and Victoria Waldersee

LONDON, April 22 (Reuters) - Automakers from General

Motors ( GM ) to Volvo Cars, alongside utilities

and charging app operators are calculating their financial cut

as EVs that allow their owners to sell power back to grids

become a more realistic prospect.

Bidirectional, or vehicle-to-grid (V2G), charging lets EV

owners charge at overnight off-peak rates then sell power back

to grids at a profit during peak hours.

For short periods, a million EVs could provide as much power

as a large nuclear power plant, says Nick Woolley, CEO of UK

software firm ev.energy, which is working on V2G technology with

Siemens, Nissan ( NSANF ), Volkswagen and others.

For many years V2G remained largely theoretical, as the

Nissan Leaf was the sole EV capable of it.

That has begun to change with the help of smart electricity

meters, artificial intelligence and modelling by innovative

energy companies.

And most major automakers, including Tesla, BMW

, Volkswagen, Renault and Toyota ( TM )

are expected to launch V2G capable models over the

coming years.

Chinese manufacturers, such as BYD have also

developed the technology and, crucially, the Chinese government

plans a big role for V2G by 2030.

"There is a lot of money to be made," Doron Frenkel, CEO of

Driivz, said of balancing grids. "Everyone wants their own piece

of this." Driivz has access to millions of EVs via the

white-label charging software it provides to automakers and

others.

In the United States, bidirectional charging is

experimental, while in major European market Germany regulatory

hurdles around how to price any energy sold back into the grid

mean it is a distant prospect.

Bidirectional chargers are also more expensive than

conventional ones because for now they are produced on a smaller

scale.

But in the UK, Octopus Energy has launched a V2G tariff for

customers, offering free charging if owners keep their EVs

plugged in overnight. Octopus plans a similar tariff this year

in its other energy markets, including France, Japan, New

Zealand and the U.S. state of Texas.

"This is a real thing," Octopus' global head of flexibility

Alex Schoch said. "It's no longer a theoretical, academic

discussion."

AUTO/ENERGY COMPANIES

Among the breakthroughs that are bringing V2G closer,

automakers have set up their own energy units, joining the

software platforms, energy distributors and others that are

vying for V2G revenue.

They do not yet know how much they might make. Most of the

money will go to EV owners, leaving just pennies per kilowatt

for intermediaries selling power to grids, but across millions

of EVs, that would add up.

Within the next few months, GM will launch an electric

Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck capable of powering homes - the

same technology as V2G - and all its EVs will have bidirectional

capability by 2026, Aseem Kapur, GM Energy's energy solutions

director, said.

GM plans to both sell energy to utilities and partner with

aggregators pooling larger numbers of EVs to sell power, Kapur

said. The automaker is also building partnerships with U.S.

utilities, including Duke Energy ( DUK ).

GM rival Ford's F-150 Lightning electric pickup is V2G

capable.

CHEAPER BILLS AND GRID BALANCING

Shilpen Patel, 39, has been using his Nissan Leaf for an

Octopus Energy V2G pilot scheme in London since 2020, plugging

in when at home and cutting his annual household energy bill by

700 pounds ($871.08), or about a third.

"The savings have been pretty remarkable," Patel said.

As a precursor to V2G at scale, companies including Octopus

already operate grid balancing services. To avoid firing up

expensive additional capacity, grid operators pay them to power

down EV chargers for very short periods.

Denmark's Monta, for instance, gives charging app users in

some markets around 8 euros ($8.53) per month for grid

balancing, while Driivz uses it to protect the Dutch grid from

demand spikes.

Volkswagen's energy unit Elli is building a trading platform

in Germany for grid balancing as a precursor to V2G and plans to

expand or work with partners in other markets, said Ingo

Mueller, the unit's head of energy solutions.

Nuvve ( NVVE ) provides V2G services for around 500 electric

buses in a number of U.S. states, an easy proposition as they

are plugged in most of the day and during school holidays.

But for passenger EVs, persuading customers via apps with

accurate and attractive pricing will be vital.

Platforms with reliable AI forecasts for how many EVs will

be plugged in will get more business from the likes of Duke

Energy ( DUK ), which is running bidirectional tests with GM and Ford.

"You've got to be able to accurately predict how much

capacity is available at any given time," said Zachary Kuznar,

managing director for grid solutions development at Duke.

Automakers' energy units will mostly lack the scale to

aggregate enough EVs locally to sell power to utilities, so

emerging platforms, including Kaluza or The Mobility House, aim

to act as intermediaries, aggregating EVs across multiple

brands.

Those intermediaries will also need to ensure EVs do not

overburden grids if everyone charges when prices are low and

discharges when they are high, Timo Kern, director of energy

systems and markets at Munich-based energy research institute

FfE, said.

Renault has partnered with The Mobility House,

while Volvo is working both on its own platform and with others

like Kaluza, said Alexander Petrofski, who heads Volvo Cars

Energy Solutions.

Kaluza is also working with other automakers including

Volkswagen, Stellantis, Nissan ( NSANF ), GM, Mitsubishi and Porsche to

act as an intermediary with thousands of utilities, said

Kaluza's chief product officer Neel Gulhar.

He said charging app providers or others could sidestep

automakers and run V2G services via EV chargers. But Kaluza

wants to partner with automakers because of the data they can

access.

"We need those partnerships because you get a lot more data

from the vehicle than you do from chargers," Gulhar said.

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