Volvo Cars has launched Volvo Cars Energy Solution, a completely new business unit that will offer energy storage and charging-related technologies and services, including bi-directional charging.
For example, bi-directional charging is a technology that allows an electric car to give back extra battery power to a compatible grid, helping to balance the grid during peak hours and reduce the need for fossil-generated electricity.
The new Volvo Cars flagship, the fully electric EX90 SUV, will be the first Volvo car equipped with all the necessary hardware and (over time) software to enable bi-directional charging and direct energy storage from solar.
Together with Göteborg Energi Nät AB, the local grid company in the company’s Swedish hometown of Gothenburg, Volvo Cars is now launching one of the first vehicle-to-grid (V2G) pilot programs that aims to test such V2G technologies on the local energy grid and in a home environment with real customers.
The pilot deliberately uses a low-cost AC wallbox, because it will help to accelerate widespead adoption of the technology.
The pilot project not only aims to gain acceptance from a grid company and to demonstrate to other grid companies that V2G programs can provide tangible benefits, but to create a testing arena for new technologies that are central to the future of Volvo Cars outside the lab.
