When the car does the washing

With immediate effect, it is now possible to use the car's battery for living with the "Vehicle to Home" function in many models of the Volkswagen ID family. With "bidirectional charging", customers can cover their electricity needs with their photovoltaic system, because the solar power in the car enables operation independently of the public grid, for example in the event of power outages or isolated applications. Volkswagen and Hager Energy GmbH, with its integrated home energy management system (HEMS), have launched a pilot project in Sweden in which an entire housing estate is being equipped with vehicles and the corresponding charging infrastructure.

ID models with the 77 kWh battery (net) will be able to use the bidirectional charging function as an additional power storage unit for the home in future. VW will also be able to activate the function for vehicles that have already been delivered as soon as they have also received the ID software 3.5 update. Thanks to the high storage capacity of the cars, a house can also be supplied with solar power over several cloudy days. The same applies in the evening when the sun has set and the photovoltaic system is no longer supplying electricity.

Furthermore, with clever electricity tariffs and algorithms, it is already possible today to charge the car exactly when there is a lot of renewable energy available. For example, wind turbines do not have to be curtailed because the electricity generated cannot be purchased. In turn, electric cars can feed electricity into the customer's home grid (vehicle-to-home) and also help to stabilize the electricity grid in the future.

The Stenberg estate in Hudiksvall, Sweden, is the site of a pilot project for bidirectional charging. The farm, which was converted as the basis for the new estate, has been standing for around 350 years. Swedish entrepreneur Klas Boman wants to make the houses future-proof and sustainable for another 350 years by converting them.

Boman: "Stenberg is a once-in-a-lifetime project. When we decided to realize the 'another 350 years project', energy and the environment were key. Every decision was made with these aspects in mind. The use of electric vehicles as energy storage was considered from the outset. Volkswagen thankfully joined the project in April 2021 and we are now ready to go. This will be one of the biggest changes in the energy market." (aum)