France first to launch commercial V2G with electric Renault 5

The all-electric Renault 5 e-tech and the Alpine A290 are the first Renault vehicles equipped with a bidirectional charger capable of Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G). They were launched with the promise of allowing the owner to earn back some money by delivering electricity from the car to the network. And now, France is the first European country to enable it commercially.

Renault is introducing bidirectional charging through its mobility brand Mobilize and German specialist The Mobility House via a dedicated (green) electricity contract. The required charging station, a PowerBox Verso AC manufactured by French LACROI and commercialized by Mobilize, can communicate with the intelligent digital electricity meter at home.

Communicating with the cloud

The charger communicates with the vehicle and the cloud to decide whether to recharge the battery or send power back to the grid, depending on battery charging needs, domestic needs, and ‘incentives’ from the energy market and power grid.

The so-called Mobilize Power service includes a smartphone app for programming bidirectional charging. The app allows users to record criteria such as a desired battery level and the time the vehicle will next be used.

Only with a dedicated wallbox

The Mobilize PowerBox Verso wall box costs €2,143, considerably more than the €1,499 for the regular 7,4 kW to 22 kW Mobilize PowerBox Uno. However, the idea is to earn back that money by selling surplus power to the grid operator.

Mobilize promises an interesting base contract priced “22% lower” than the French regulated maximum price (TRV), at €0,2018/kWh, guaranteed for one year. ‘V2G hours‘ earnings will be deducted from your electricity bills as an extra.

Earning 250 to 400 euros per year

It isn’t specified exactly how much, but a sample calculation on the Mobilize website assumes €26.9 monthly earned back with ‘V2G hours’, a reduction of €323.0 per year.

In the example given, a family with a household consumption of 6500 kWh and a Renault 5 e-tech doing 10,000 km yearly and adding another 1600 kWh of energy consumption would be €118,9 monthly (instead of €145.8) or €1427.2 annually (compared to €1750.1).

That matches The Mobility House’s estimates of around €250 to €400 annually. In this scenario, using a home solar panel installation to charge the car and use it as a ‘backup battery’ for the home (V2H) or to stabilize the grid while not in use isn’t calculated. That could make the promise of ‘charging your EV’ for free a more realistic slogan.

More becoming capable

While Vehicle-to-Grid technology has been limited to pilot projects, both companies claim that Mobilize and The Mobility House are now making it a market-ready product. Currently, choices are limited to two specific Renault cars combined with dedicated hardware. Renault, however, promises to offer V2G in all future electric cars.

Until now, most V2G applications were pilot projects, primarily relying on Japanese cars from Nissan or Mitsubishi that use the CHAdeMO as DC charging standard, which has been mainly discontinued outside of Japan. However, more V2G-capable EVs are in the pipeline, as most car manufacturers are setting up pilot projects.

Part of the problem is that governments must first decide how to legally make V2G a reality. Legal regulations are still preventing commercialization in most European countries, with France being the first to implement them.

Great Britain will follow in 2025, while Germany, The Mobility House’s home market, and other countries, including Belgium, continue to evaluate the legal requirements. The potential is enormous, though.

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology can significantly contribute to grid stability. The Mobility House states that harnessing electric cars’ mobile energy storage as a giant power plant can absorb power shortages, stabilize the grid, and prevent potential blackouts.

“The combined battery capacity in over a million electric cars could contribute over 80 GWh to the power grid. It’s a significant factor even if only a fraction of their capacity is utilized. To put it in perspective, all German pumped-storage power plants currently produce just about 40 GWh.”