⚡️ V2X - Utility pilots vehicle-to-everything in Silicon Valley

Happy Monday. This is Electric Avenue. The newsletter that gets EV enthusiasts more excited than seeing the Hummer EV hit 360kW peak charging rate on a 350kW charger.

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• EV & Charging stock performance

• 1 Pic

• 3 Thoughts

• 3 Links

• Electric Meme of the week

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This week saw further drawdowns on EV and charging stocks. Tesla`s price is now close to value stock level according to one analyst. In the meantime Polestar stock had a massive gain, after the company announced it`s first profitable quarter during the recent earnings call.

1 Pic 🖼

Pacific Gas&Electric (PG&E) is the local utility in the San Francisco Bay Area - including Silicon Valley. It is both grid operator and retail electricity seller to millions of households in Northern California. So when they launch a V2X pilot program for bidirectional EV charging - it`s a BIG deal! This week the official website for the program went live and residential as well as commercial customers located in PG&E territory can express pre-interest in the program to get on the list for potential incentives.

The picture above shows a list of eligible EVs for the program as well as compatible V2G-capable charging stations for each vehicle. It also lists estimated timeframes for when bidirectional charging with each combination will become possible. There is a separate list for commercial vehicles such as electric school buses from Blue Bird, Proterra and Lion as well as (weirdly) the Nissan Leaf.

3 Thoughts 💬

• Pulling back the curtain: This is the most concrete, public list that we have on specific EV models that will support DC bi-directional charging. We reported on these planned features for the VW ID.4, the Ford F150 Lightning and the Chevy Silverado EV in past editions. Volvo also recently announced bi-directional capabilities (both AC&DC) for the upcoming EX90 EV, and the same technology carries over to the Polestar 3 since it is a shared platform. But this seems to be the first public announcement of broad availability of bi-directional charging for Hyundai, KIA and Genesis EVs as well as the Porsche Taycan. Unfortunately compatible charger models are still a mystery, except for the Ford F150 Lightning which only lists compatibility with the Ford-provided Charge Station Pro at this stage. We´ll keep close tabs on this development and have a few questions we hope to get answered soon:

  • Which chargers will enable bi-directional charging on the remaining vehicle models?

  • Will all vehicles require dedicated chargers with proprietary communication, or will we have partial interoperability between 3rd party chargers and vehicles from different brands?

  • Will a certain Model Year of vehicle be required, or would the oldest theoretical vehicle on this list - a MY2020 Porsche Taycan - be supported?

  • Will the program be limited to DC V2G, or will any of the vehicles support bi-directional charging through lower-cost AC home charging stations?

• Nissan Leaf dilemma: The most-sold EV on the list is clearly the Nissan Leaf. It is unfortunate that residential participants are not eligible to claim incentives for program participation with a Leaf. We hope that there are some commercial fleet operators of Nissan Leafs that can take advantage.

• Importance of incentives: The incentives for residential customers consist of two columns:

  • $2,500 upfront ($3k for customers in Disadvantaged Communities)

  • Up to $2,175 additional for performance

These incentives are meant to offset the high purchase price and installation costs for bi-directional DC chargers. As an example, we reported on the Ford Home Backup System with a total hardware cost of ~$5,200. Installation costs are highly variable but could add several thousands more.

The current program page allows for the expression of "pre-interest" and the residential incentives are limited to 1,000 participants. Final enrollment will begin in Q1/2023. If any of our readers are planning to enroll please reach out to us - we would love to get a participant perspective. If you`re still thinking about which EV to buy, take a look at our case for the MY2023 Made-in-the-USA Volkswagen ID.4 which should be the cheapest and most broadly available vehicle on this list - AND it`s eligible for the planned iteration of the federal EV tax credit!

3 Links

• Tesla opens Supercharger connector design: In Vol. 7 we featured an analysis on how Tesla could "offload" price sensitive Tesla drivers to 3rd party networks, which charge lower prices. This is effectively happening in Europe already. To replicate this strategy in the US, Tesla needs two do two things:

  • A) provide a CCS adapter to price-sensitive Tesla owners to allow them to charge at other networks - DONE

  • B) provide a way to onboard "premium" customers with CCS EV`s to the largest fast charging network in North America - the Supercharger network. Tesla might have just executed the first step by publishing a blog post about opening the design of the Supercharger connector technology and positioning it as the North American Charging Standard (NACS). We`ll have more on this in a future edition.

• Price reduction for EQS & EQE in China: The last 12 months were all about inflation and significant price increases for electric vehicles. Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz just reduced the prices for the EQE and EQS in China by up to 13%. This comes at a time where Chinese EV startups like NIO enter the home-turf of German car makers. The price decrease clearly signals steps traditionally strong car brands need to undertake to react to broader competition such as the NIO ET7.

• Fisker - Start of Production (SOP): California-based EV startup Fisker Inc. has had it`s official start of production for the Fisker Ocean SUV. Important to note here is that Fisker has chosen an asset-light approach, the manufacturing is undertaken by Magna in Graz, Austria. The Austrian company has experience in manufacturing cars for other customers, for example the G-class for Mercedes-Benz, including the upcoming electric variant "EQG".

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Meme of the Week

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.