China wants its vast electric-car fleet to become more than a transport revolution. Under its newly unveiled 15th five-year energy plan, Beijing aims to have EVs play a role in balancing a power system increasingly dominated by wind and solar.

The plan, covering 2026 to 2030, targets a 50% share for non-fossil sources in electricity generation by the end of the decade. It also foresees wind and solar becoming the largest source of installed generating capacity, while coal and oil demand should peak during the period.

Vehicle-to-grid interaction

To make that system work, China is betting heavily on batteries, pumped hydro, virtual power plants, and, increasingly, the flexibility of connected electric vehicles.

One of the most eye-catching targets is for “vehicle-to-grid interaction” (V2G) to provide around 50 GW of aggregated adjustable charging capacity by 2030.

On paper, that sounds like millions of EVs forming a giant distributed battery, feeding electricity back into the grid when the grid is under pressure. But the policy wording is more nuanced. The target is for ‘adjustable charging’, not necessarily 50 GW of cars exporting power back into the grid.

Smart charging

That distinction matters. Most of the flexibility can come from smart charging, also known as V1G (Vehicle-to-Grid one-way).

Instead of every driver plugging in after work and creating an evening demand spike, an operator could delay charging until overnight, speed it up when solar power is abundant, or temporarily reduce it during a heatwave-driven peak. For a grid operator, a car that does not charge at the wrong moment can be almost as useful as one that sends electricity back.

True vehicle-to-grid (V2G) goes further. It requires a bidirectional vehicle, a compatible charger, communication with an aggregator and grid operator, suitable tariffs, metering, local approval, and a battery owner willing to make part of the battery available.

It also needs a clear financial reward. Drivers will not routinely offer their battery to the grid merely for the public good, especially if they worry about degradation or need the car for an unexpected journey.

40 million charging points

China has the scale to make smart charging a significant reality. It had more than 4.7 million public charging points at the end of 2025, more than 65% of the global total, while its public network accounted for over three-quarters of worldwide charger growth last year. Its new plan calls for 40 million charging points in total by 2030.

But scale alone does not make a V2G market. China is still in the pilot and pre-commercial phase. The International Energy Agency notes that the country has announced 30 vehicle-to-grid pilots across nine cities and aims to have 5,000 V2G charging facilities by the end of 2027.

Not yet fully standardized

Crucially, bidirectional charging protocols for China’s GB/T standard are not yet fully standardized, while communication between chargers, aggregators, and grid operators is still fragmented or proprietary.

That makes Beijing’s 50 GW goal ambitious, but not unrealistic. The likely route is not millions of private motorists discharging at will.

It is fleets, workplace chargers, apartment complexes, taxi operators, battery-swapping networks, and managed home chargers aggregated into virtual power plants.

Cars would mostly charge when electricity is cheap and plentiful, while only a smaller share of V2G-compatible cars would discharge during short, high-value grid events.

The effect on China’s overall energy balance should also be kept in perspective. The country’s peak electricity demand reached 1,506 GW in July 2025.

A fully available 50 GW of EV flexibility would therefore equal about 3.3% of that peak. That is not enough to transform annual electricity production, but it could be extremely valuable in avoiding local overloads, absorbing solar generation at midday, and reducing the need to keep expensive peaking plants on standby.

Only one element

EVs are only one element in a much larger shift. China is also counting on the continued mass rollout of other sources.

Like onshore and offshore wind and solar, 160 GW of pumped-storage hydropower, 300 GW of new battery and other storage capacity, virtual power plants with more than 50 GW of regulating capacity, and a further expansion of nuclear power to around 110 GW.

Green hydrogen and renewable fuels are intended to complement that system in sectors that are harder to electrify directly.

In that sense, EVs are better understood as a timing tool than as a new power source. They do not create additional electricity. They help shift it from the hours when wind or solar output is plentiful to the hours when demand is highest.

Europe is ahead

Europe is ahead of China in commercial V2G deployment, even though it lacks anything close to China’s scale. According to the IEA, commercial V2G offers are already available in France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, where grid rules, aggregators, tariffs, and compatible hardware have begun to align.

Belgium sits just behind that first group. Its regulatory framework is beginning to accommodate bidirectional charging: Fluvius treats V2G chargers as generating units, requiring registration, inspection, and certified equipment.

But the market remains at an early stage, with only a limited number of compatible vehicles and charger combinations. Unlike France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, Belgium is not yet among the countries identified by the IEA as having both a fully enabling framework and established commercial V2G offers.

Germany removed double grid charges for bidirectional charging at the end of 2025, while the EU is preparing minimum requirements for new chargers from 2027, including bidirectional capability and ISO 15118-20 support.

Biggest potential prize

China, then, is not yet leading the world in real-world V2G use. Europe is further ahead in the difficult commercial and regulatory work required to turn a parked EV into a grid asset.

But China has the biggest potential prize: the largest EV market, the world’s densest charging build-out, a rapidly growing renewable-energy system, and a state capable of coordinating utilities, carmakers, and infrastructure providers.