With strong echoes of last summer’s announcement here in the UK of Octopus Energy’s Power Pack “World First vehicle-to-grid EV bundle”, Octopus Deutschland have just issued a German language press release along similar lines. Here is an extract, auto translated by Google:

Octopus Energy and Ford are introducing bidirectional vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging for private customers in Germany. This collaboration will make electric cars an active part of the power grid. Starting in summer 2026, owners of a new Ford Capri or Ford Explorer will be able to benefit from significant cost advantages by using their vehicle as an energy storage device. These savings will allow for up to 16,000 kilometers of free driving per year.

With V2G (Vehicle-to-Grid), electric cars become flexible energy storage devices that can not only absorb energy but also feed it back into the grid. Octopus Energy’s solution prioritizes charging the vehicle during off-peak hours when electricity is cheap, and the vehicle feeds power back into the grid when it is most valuable – for example, in the early evening when demand is high. For electric car owners, this means that if their car is connected to the bidirectional wallbox at home, it works for them. Collectively, this makes a significant contribution to the stability of the German energy system and, ideally, reduces the cost of electricity for driving to zero.