WhichEV.Net
  • Buying Advice
  • EV Answers
  • Features
  • News
    • All
    • Charging
    • Commercial Vehicles
    • Consumer Vehicles
    • Cool Car Tech
    • Curiosities
    • Design
    • Energy
    • Environment
    • Industry
    • Legal
    • Market
    • Motorsport
    • Public Sector
    • Records
    • Rumours
    • Safety
    • Sharing
    • Solar

    Volvo introduces the EX30 as the next step in sustainability

    Is Sunak considering a special £625 a year road tax for EVs?

    VW resets software programme – autonomous delayed by 4 years

    Can solar panels between rail tracks generate significant power?

    eBike bargains and sunshine? Time to get out there

    Stellantis urges UK Government to renegotiate Brexit

    Trending Tags

  • Reviews
No Result
View All Result
WhichEV.Net
  • Buying Advice
  • EV Answers
  • Features
  • News
    • All
    • Charging
    • Commercial Vehicles
    • Consumer Vehicles
    • Cool Car Tech
    • Curiosities
    • Design
    • Energy
    • Environment
    • Industry
    • Legal
    • Market
    • Motorsport
    • Public Sector
    • Records
    • Rumours
    • Safety
    • Sharing
    • Solar

    Volvo introduces the EX30 as the next step in sustainability

    Is Sunak considering a special £625 a year road tax for EVs?

    VW resets software programme – autonomous delayed by 4 years

    Can solar panels between rail tracks generate significant power?

    eBike bargains and sunshine? Time to get out there

    Stellantis urges UK Government to renegotiate Brexit

    Trending Tags

  • Reviews
No Result
View All Result
WhichEV.Net
No Result
View All Result
Home News Charging

Tesla’s secret vehicle-to-grid technology accidentally uncovered

Gian Matteo Sacchetti by Gian Matteo Sacchetti
27th May 2020
in Charging, News
Reading Time: 2 mins read
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Tesla has been quietly equipping the Model 3 with vehicle-to-grid technology. This means that owners could potentially power their house with their Tesla vehicle during a power outage or charge another electric vehicle with their own.

Vehicle-to-grid technology allows an EV to be used as a battery pack, letting owners sell stored excess battery back to the grid when demand for energy is peaking. This feature, as it is used by other competitors such as Honda and Nissan, is an unexpected component for Tesla. In the past, CEO Elon Musk and cofounder and former CTO JB Straubel have expressed concerns about enabling bidirectional charging (aka vehicle-to-grid) in Tesla vehicles due to the potential of accelerated battery degradation.

However, recently it is becoming less of a concern as Tesla keeps improving battery longevity with new battery cells — leading to its “million-mile battery.” According to Marco Gaxiola, an electrical engineer who participated in a Model 3 teardown for a Tesla competitor, while reverse engineering the electric car’s charger he found it to be ready for bidirectional charging.

This means that Tesla could eventually unlock a lot more value from its customer fleet, both for the vehicle owners and for Tesla itself. Drivers will be able to fully recharge their car in off-peak hours when electricity is at its lowest price, and then sell the same energy back to the grid when prices are high. It’s a win-win situation as it offers some of the cheapest charging rates possible.

As we said, Tesla isn’t the only automaker using this type of technology. If you are a Nissan Leaf owner and you live in Milton Keynes, you can now apply to the Domestic Energy Balancing EV Charging project. This is a trial for domestic smart chargers, vehicle to grid (V2G) chargers and home battery storage, with the option to keep the equipment at the end of the project. Also Octopus Energy is testing this technology now in the south-east of the UK with a groundbreaking Powerloop bundle, one of the world’s first mass domestic V2G projects.

In order to participate in this trial, you will also need a Nissan Leaf. Owners will have their homes kitted out with a special V2G-compatible charger. The V2G charger can import energy to charge, but also export energy to feed it back to the grid.

Vehicle-to-grid tech is getting a lot of attention from automakers for its potential to help balance the grid as we move towards an all-electric world. This technology will allow consumers to buy electricity much more cheaply and store it when it’s not in demand, usually during the night. This means far less energy would be consumed at peak times, when the grid often has to call on gas-powered stations, for example, to meet the high energy demand.

Tags: TeslaTesla Model 3
Previous Post

Mazda begins production of £30,000 MX-30 EV

Next Post

By 2040 more than half of all passenger vehicles sold might be electric

Gian Matteo Sacchetti

Gian Matteo Sacchetti

Experienced journalist with a love of electric vehicles. Presently working on an extensive project studying the decay process of lithium-ion batteries and the options available to give them a second life.

Related Posts

Volvo introduces the EX30 as the next step in sustainability

25th May 2023

Is Sunak considering a special £625 a year road tax for EVs?

24th May 2023

VW resets software programme – autonomous delayed by 4 years

23rd May 2023

Can solar panels between rail tracks generate significant power?

22nd May 2023
Next Post

By 2040 more than half of all passenger vehicles sold might be electric

Discussion about this post

Review Finder

Latest News

Volvo introduces the EX30 as the next step in sustainability

25th May 2023

Is Sunak considering a special £625 a year road tax for EVs?

24th May 2023

VW resets software programme – autonomous delayed by 4 years

23rd May 2023

Trending

  • WhichEV Awards 2023: The Year’s Best EVs

    2789 shares
    Share 1116 Tweet 697
  • Future electric cars: Best upcoming electric cars, SUVs and pickup trucks – 2021 UPDATE!

    1410 shares
    Share 580 Tweet 346
  • How to turn your favourite classic car into an EV

    1340 shares
    Share 553 Tweet 328
  • Octopus Electric Vehicles launches an all-in-one EV bundle

    1298 shares
    Share 519 Tweet 325
  • What makes an EV charging station accessible for people with disabilities?

    1228 shares
    Share 491 Tweet 307
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact the WhichEV team today

© 2022 WhichEV. Limited - All of the independent news and expert reviews you need in one publication.

No Result
View All Result
  • Buying Advice
  • EV Answers
  • Features
  • News
  • Reviews

© 2022 WhichEV. Limited - All of the independent news and expert reviews you need in one publication.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.