⚡ The Secret feature that EV companies don't want you to know about...

Happy Monday. This is Electric Avenue. Providing you with your charging juice for the week. Think of us as the JambaJuice of Electric newsletters.

Here's what we have for you today:

• The Surprising Truth About Bidirectional Charging in Today’s EVs. 🚗

• 3 Thoughts 💭

• 3 Links 🔗

• Meme of the week 🤡

Let's get into it!

The Surprising Truth About Bidirectional Charging in Today’s EVs 🚗

Bidirectional charging is badass. It lets you use your EV battery for more than just driving. You can power your home, your office, or even the grid.

It's how we tap into the big potential of EV batteries for emergency backup power and grid-supporting virtual power plants (VPP). The industry distinguishes between different types of bidirectional charging, such as vehicle-to-grid (V2G), vehicle-to-load (V2L), vehicle-to-home (V2H), and the umbrella term vehicle-to-everything (V2X).

We’re obsessed with this topic at Electric Avenue. Just look at some of the stories we’ve published on V2X in the last 6 months:

• We've written about AC V2X in ⚡ Bringing juice to the office - with AC V2X.

• We've discussed the benefits of V2H in ⚡️ Who`s afraid of power outages? and ⚡️Ford backup power in action - first DC V2H system.

• We've highlighted PG&Es planned V2X pilot program in ⚡️ V2X - Utility pilots vehicle-to-everything in Silicon Valley and reviewed the results of a UK-based V2X pilot in ⚡️The results are in - 3 year V2X pilot in the UK!.

But here’s the thing: Most EVs sold today don’t support bidirectional charging. Or do they?

The folks at PIONIX did some testing and found out that some EVs can be tricked into discharging. PIONIX initiated EVerest, an open source software stack for EV charging stations. Since the EVerest project is completely Open Source (supported by the Linux Foundation Energy) the Pionix team did the industry a favor: They shared the complete test results and log files of various vehicle's willingness to do discharging on GitHub. You can check them out here, but we also summarized the results in this handy table for y'all:

Key Insights:

• Hidden capabilities: If you ask representatives of these car makers, none of these models support the feature officially as of today. All companies in question (except Tesla) have publicly stated that they are working on enabling bidirectional charging for their customers at "some time in the future". But the results identify a number of vehicles which allow DC V2G discharging unofficially today. These are not prototypes, they are series production vehicles which you can buy today.

• Varying levels of support: The Polestar 2 and vehicles on Hyundai-KIA's E-GMP platform allow discharging without any apparent limits. Other vehicles are much more strict: VW Group and BMW vehicles time out after just 60 seconds/5 minutes of discharging respectively. Tesla limits the energy exported amount rather than the discharging time. Mercedes implemented limits for both time and energy.

• DC only: The Pionix engineers used both DIN7021 and ISO15118 communication protocols to initiate discharging sessions with varying results. At this time, only DC V2G was successfully tested as the EV heavily relies on the off-board charger inside the DC wallbox during this type of charging.

• Feature or Bug?: It is unclear whether the unlimited discharging was design-intent of the Polestar and Hyundai engineers. OEMs could close these loopholes - maybe. It would require the ability to update critical ECUs like the charge controller over-the-air.

Three Thoughts 💭

Incentives drive outcomes: In order to allow V2X installations and support market adoption, the industry needs streamlined interconnection processes as well as an attractive policy framework and incentives for EV owners and fleet operators. Recently, a bill requiring all-electric vehicles (EVs) to have bidirectional charging capability by 2027 was presented for discussion in California. These "Push" mandates need to go hand in hand with "Pull" instruments like allowing V2X-based Virtual Power Plants to participate in energy markets.

Consumer confidence: EV drivers' concerns with V2X include the potential impact on battery degradation, warranty, and lifespan. Automotive companies must give warranties to increase customer confidence and facilitate predictable residual values for EVs. They must carefully think about the balance between the benefits of V2X (backup power, energy trading) and accelerated degradation. The best companies will educate their customers on trade offs and help them decide how to minimize depreciation of their vehicles. For example, VW took the route of limiting discharging to 4000hours/10,000kWh, in order to maintain its battery warranty (Link to our 1st newsletter post where we reported 😊). In the US, Nissan stated that the battery warranty for its Nissan Leaf EV will remain in place regardless of V2X usage.

AC/DC: We're not talking about the rock band here! Both AC and DC V2G have benefits that shine in different use cases. The industry must work with public stakeholders to enable all types bidirectional charging and define how bidirectional charging will be steered (e.g. grid code interpretation). Especially for DC-based bidirectional charging, the charger availability and costs are crucial. The good news - companies like Fermata, Enphase, InCharge and others are launching V2X-capable DC chargers and we expect to find out more about price points soon.

3 Links 🔗

• V2G test lab: German EV startups, The Mobility House (TMH) and Ambibox, announced the launch of a joint V2G testing lab. The goal is to test DC V2G with a variety of vehicles under realistic conditions. For this purpose, Ambibox will install six units of its DC V2G charger at the lab. TMH will contribute its cloud-based EV aggregation platform and integration with energy trading markets.

• Compleo finds new owner: The assets of insolvent German EV charging company Compleo Group will be purchased by KOSTAL. Compleo rose to fame in the industry as a company that grew rapidly through the acquisitions of Wallbe and Innogy charging. But just two years after its IPO, the company had to declare bankruptcy after failing to properly integrate its acquisitions and streamline its product portfolio.

• Porsche drivers get EV routing variety: Apple Maps' EV routing feature works much better when it knows your vehicle's state of charge. It shows you the best places to charge up. And it tells you how much charge you’ll have when you get there. Porsche Taycan is the second EV to support Apple’s SOC feature, which so far was only available in Ford's Mustang Mach-E. Porsche also has its own charging planner, but Apple Maps gives drivers another great option.

Meme of the Week 🤡

That's a wrap for this week! Let us know how you feel:

Reader Review of the Week

Selected ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ Freakin´ awesome on ⚡ What are the costs of building a fast charging hub? and wrote:

"Really appreciate (1) the Electrify America CEO roadtrip video, and (2) the German DC fast charger cost video."

Someone forwarded this to you? Subscribe now - it's free!

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. The Electric Avenue team may hold investments in the companies discussed.