Vehicle-to-grid has been “just around the corner” for some years now. Many EV owners are eagerly awaiting it, as second-generation EVs almost all offer the technology as a standard feature. This week, several announcements arrived at once – in Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands – that suggest the corner has finally been turned.
The latest to join: Polestar and Danish charging provider Clever. Both companies launched a V2X pilot yesterday to test whether EV batteries can actively stabilize the grid, power the home, or keep the lights on during an outage. Selected Danish households receive a DC wallbox supporting bidirectional charging. “Vi tester fremtiden” says the sticker. Or: “We test the future”. This particular project runs until autumn this year, with a commercial application targeted for 2027.
Three use cases
Polestar and Clever are testing three specific use cases simultaneously: Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) to cover household demand during peak-price periods and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) to feed power back when the grid needs it.
The third one is island mode. This keeps the home running during an outage. Clever notes that more than 600,000 large-scale batteries are already traveling Danish roads, with packs that typically offer several times the capacity of a home storage system. That’s some serious back-up. Adoption of electric cars is accelerating fast in Denmark, trailing Norway, with eight out of ten sales being emission-free.
The Clever software charges the car when electricity prices are at their lowest and sends it back to the house when prices peak, usually in the early evening.
Germany and the Netherlands
Germany already went commercial. At the beginning of this year, BMW and E.ON launched the nation’s first V2G product for private customers. The BMW iX3 feeds energy back through the BMW Wallbox Professional, with E.ON paying 24 cents per hour the car is plugged in and ready, plus 40 cents per kWh discharged. The result: up to 14,000 kilometers free per year, and up to 720 euros in annual credit. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has announced a project for the last months of this year in Hamburg.
Last week, Vattenfall Netherlands launched a V2G pilot with Kia and Hyundai. Up to 80 households with a Kia EV9 or Hyundai Ioniq 9 receive a free bidirectional charger and up to 500 euros in energy reimbursement.
France was actually the first to launch supported bidirectional charging with the Renault 5 E-tech.
Grid stress
So no, V2G is not new. But the pace is definitely changing. It is no coincidence that a bunch of projects are being implemented in close succession. It reflects grid stress from EV fleet growth, with extra battery capacity from electric cars becoming strategically interesting.
The car is no longer just a consumer of energy but also a mobile power plant. Whether that creates real income for drivers or mainly serves grid operators – and who absorbs the battery degradation costs – are still questions seeking to be answered. But for drivers, households, and small businesses already generating energy from solar panels, the growing list of V2X projects offers tantalizing new prospects.
