We got very excited here at V2G UK way back in February 2022 when Volkswagen announced in a press release that Markus Arand, head of brand and product communications at VW Commercial Vehicles, had said:
When you have solar panels on your home, for example, this car will be able to have a thing called bi-directional charging. You can give the energy from the ID. Buzz back to your home.
From now on, many models in the ID. Family now offer bidirectional charging with the “Vehicle to Home” function. With a home power station and the integrated Home Energy Management System (HEMS) from Volkswagen partner HagerEnergy GmbH, customers can cover as much of their household consumption as possible with their photovoltaic system. Both companies have launched a pilot project in Sweden in which an entire housing estate is being supplied with vehicles and the corresponding charging infrastructure.
Another pertinent piece of information is that:
Bidirectional charging is possible in all new models with the 77 kWh battery (net) and from ID. Software 3.5 or higher.
Note that the “small print” outlines a few constraints:
The discharging and bidirectional charging functions are no longer available once the intended operating time or energy quantity has been reached: Max energy quantities: Up to 10,000 kWh Discharging; Max operating hours: Up to 4,000 hours Discharging
Here’s an image from the press release showing an “artist’s impression” of a VW ID.5 discharging electricity generated from a rooftop solar PV installation back into a home as dusk falls:
Compare and contrast the image with our own artist’s impression in the banner at the top of this article. It is now over 10 years old.
I cannot help but wonder when the first trial of Volkswagen’s exciting new V2H technology will ultimately start in a similarly equipped home here the United Kingdom, and when the current “constraints” might be raised or removed entirely?
The world premiere of the ID. BUZZ concept car at the Detroit Motor Show in January 2017 triggered a sensational response around the globe. The positive feedback made only one decision possible: the concept car had to be transferred to full production. Five intensive years of development work followed. Now the time has come: the ID. Buzz – an electric motoring game-changer – is ready. Volkswagen is therefore activating the countdown for a double world premiere: on 9 March, the all-electric Bulli will be simultaneously taking off emission-free as the ID. Buzz (5-seater) and Buzz Cargo (van).
The ID. Buzz in Barcelona
The ID. Buzz looks like the iconic electric surf bus for the 2020s and beyond?
Not having had a chance to test drive the Buzz ourselves as yet, here for your delectation is Jonny Smith’s initial review on his Late Brake Show .
By all means rewind to the start and watch the entire video, but I’ve chosen to look first at the section captioned “Bi-directional charging”:
According to Markus Arand, head of brand and product communications at VW Commercial Vehicles:
When you have solar panels on your home, for example, this car will be able to have a thing called bi-directional charging. You can give the energy from the ID. Buzz back to your home. This is the combination we are talking about.
The other technical innovation of particular interest to yours truly, since I sit on the international standards committee that developed it, is that the ID. Buzz evidently supports the ISO 15118-20 communications protocol between the EV and the charging station. The resulting ability to “Plug & Charge” without messing around with plastic cards or dodgy apps is mentioned at 25:46 in Jonny’s video.
The Buzz “data sheet” doesn’t mention its vehicle-to-home capability, but does include the following information:
Important dates
• World premiere: 9 March 2022
• Start of production ID. Buzz Cargo: first half of 2022
• Start of production ID. Buzz: first half of 2022
• Market launch in Europe: autumn 2022
Here at V2G UK we await more technical details about the Buzz’s V2H capabilities with barely bated breath! A test drive to the seaside would also be much appreciated. And also a bit of vehicle-to-home interoperability testing in our suitably equipped car park:
Lisa our Nissan LEAF also cannot wait to meet Buzz. She gets very lonely at times:
Back in March 2019 I was in Amsterdam to watch Volkswagen’s Martin Römheld give the final keynote speech at the rEVolution conference:
Amongst many other things he said that:
For VW I can tell you, and I think you can read that from the papers and the news currently they’re really doing a paradigm shift. The top management is really turning around the company big time.
and then went on to outline VW’s ID series of electric vehicles:
Volkswagen ID.4 1ST Max
At the rEVolution after party I asked Martin whether Volkswagen had any ambitions by way of bidirectional power transfer. He dropped a heavy hint, but I was of course sworn to secrecy. Now at long last VW Development Board Member Thomas Ulbrich has revealed much more about those ambitions in an interview with German newspaper Handelsblatt. I’ve been hoping for a definitive English language version to appear, but no such luck. Hence what follows is aided by Google Translate.
According to Handelsblatt:
In order for a fleet of millions of EVs to be used as a new, flexible energy storage facility, electric cars must also be able to return the electricity to the grid at any time – they must be designed to be “bidirectional”. The VW group will be the first major manufacturer to start doing so next year.
I assume Handelsblatt must actually mean “the first major German manufacturer”, since on this side of the North Sea Japanese EV OEM Nissan certainly count as “major”, and they’ve been offering V2G capable vehicles for quite some time! Moving on we are told:
From 2022 onwards, every electric car from the Volkswagen Group that is based on the MEB (“Modularer E-Antriebs-Baukasten” but “modular electrification kit” according to Google) electrical platform can not only be charged with electricity but also return it to the grid. In addition to VW, the MEB is also used by the sister brands Audi , Skoda and Seat-Cupra.
The first generation of MEB models that Volkswagen has been delivering since autumn last year is not yet designed to be bidirectional. These cars can only charge. Volkswagen will be able to retrofit V2G to those cars with comparatively few technical changes and additional software.
Production should begin in December, and the bidirectional electric cars will go on sale after the turn of the year. At least 300,000 vehicles are likely to be manufactured at the VW plant in Zwickau alone in 2022.
Nissan does then get a mention, albeit a rather Deutschland centric one:
Nissan’s e-models have been able to charge bidirectionally as a standard feature since 2013. “The fact that this ability has not yet been exploited is solely due to the lack of relevant functions in the current charging stations,” said a Nissan spokeswoman.
But if the European industry leader opts for bidirectionality, then many other competitors will have to follow suit for competitive reasons alone. “Volkswagen is setting things in motion”, says Stefan Bratzel, professor at the Center of Automotive Management (CAM) at the Bergisch Gladbach University of Applied Sciences.
Other automakers are likely to present similar offers for the foreseeable future. Hyundai from Korea has already made a corresponding announcement.
We have recently covered that Hyundai V2x announcement in detail, and I have to say that I very much look forward to a wide variety of VW’s competitors shipping hundreds of thousands of V2G enabled electric vehicles beginning in 2022 or shortly thereafter.
However there remains the issue of that unfortunate “lack of relevant functions in the current charging stations”. Currently installed V2G capable charging stations use the Japanese CHAdeMO system, and even Nissan’s new Ariya EV has dropped that way of doing things here in Europe. Hence I cannot help but wonder how hundreds of thousands of VW MEB/ID compatible bidirectional charging stations are suddenly going to spring up along the highways and byways of Europe. And the United Kingdom too of course.
In conclusion, here is an infographic from Volkswagen’s current Energy Storage FAQ:
For some strange reason it bears a striking resemblance to our SaMDES banner at the top of this article. However in VW’s V2G vision the EV is outside the garage rather than inside!
On the first day of V2G UK’s trip to The Netherlands I attended EVBox’s rEVolution 2019 event in Amsterdam. Here’s EVBox’s own brief overview of the event:
and here’s yours truly during a quiet interlude at the entrance to the Gashouder Westergasfabriek:
In the first of several reports from Amsterdam, here’s what Martin Römheld of Volkswagen revealed in the final keynote speech:
Here are a few of the key points from Martin’s presentation:
My smallest daughter, she’s 3 years now, so by 2090 she’s probably going to be 74. So that means this is not a far distant scenario. I know people now who are spilling their breakfast all over them who will have to live on that planet by 2090:
Martin was referring to his animation of two alternative Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs for short). RCP 2.6 on the left “assumes that global annual greenhouse gas emissions peak between 2010–2020, with emissions declining substantially thereafter”, whereas RCP 8.5 on the right “assumes that global GHG emissions continue to rise throughout the 21st century”.
For VW I can tell you, and I think you can read that from the papers and the news currently they’re really doing a paradigm shift. The top management is really turning around the company big time. The “dieselgate” that Roger mentioned was definitely a facilitator in that. Something had to happen, and it’s really happening now. It caused a lot of fear. It caused a lot of movement, but it’s absolutely necessary.
Volkswagen’s “new paradigm” includes a “commitment to the climate goals of the Paris Agreement“.
Here you can see the greenhouse gas emissions by different sectors. I’ve singled out the two that we have an influence on. We are part of the industry, so within the value chain and the production of the vehicle we have a big influence on that section, and of course with our products and the services we provide to our customers we have a big impact on the other 14%, the emissions while the vehicle are being used.
Moving on from VW’s aspirations to some engineering, Martin pointed out that:
The question is “How much energy is contained in one litre of diesel?”. Very few people know that. It’s about 10 kWh, so 6 litres of diesel are the equivalent of 60 kWh of energy. So how far will that takes us? With a diesel car, if you have a moderate driving style, it will take you about 100 km… With an EV you go four times that far. And that’s the discussion we have to take. It’s not a question about how much more electricity do we consume, it’s a question about how much less energy do we consume.
When it comes to reducing the energy consumption of “personal mobility” by a factor of four, here are Volkswagen Group’s plans. Firstly an overview of their “Modularer E-Antriebs-Baukasten” (MEB) Platform:
which will form the basis for their forthcoming I.D. series of electric vehicles:
In a press release a couple of days ago it was announced that:
BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company and the Volkswagen Group with Audi and Porsche today announced joint venture IONITY that will develop and implement a High-Power Charging (HPC) network for electric vehicles across Europe. Launching approximately 400 HPC stations by 2020, IONITY will make long-distance journeys easier and marks an important step for electric vehicles.
Based in Munich, Germany, the joint venture is led by Chief Executive Officer Michael Hajesch and Chief Operating Officer Marcus Groll, with a growing team, set to number 50 by the start of 2018.
A total of 20 stations will be opened to the public this year, located on major roads in Germany, Norway and Austria, at intervals of 120 km, through partnerships with “Tank & Rast”, “CircleK” and “OMV. Through 2018, the network will expand to more than 100 stations, each one enabling multiple customers, driving different manufacturer cars, to charge their vehicles simultaneously.
As that image implies:
With a capacity of up to 350 kW per charging point, the network will use the European charging standard Combined Charging System to significantly reduce charging times compared to existing systems. The brand-agnostic approach and Europe-wide distribution is expected to help make electrified vehicles more appealing.
Unfortunately, from our perspective at least, it seems as though “Europe-wide” doesn’t currently include the United Kingdom. What’s more the new joint venture isn’t worldwide “brand-agnostic” either. It seems unlikely that any Japanese EV OEMs will be joining the group any time soon. When it comes to rapid charging they currently prefer the CHAdeMO connector!
