Into Volkswagen's Crazy Idea That Will Pay You For Driving Your Electric Car
Volkswagen is taking a major step in redefining the electric vehicle and energy landscapes. In partnership with its energy division Elli, the automaker is preparing to launch a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) programme in Germany. This initiative could allow EV owners to use their electric vehicles to save and even earn money. In fact, it turns them into active participants in the energy ecosystem.
Volkswagen’s Vehicle to Grid (V2G) programme will allow compatible electric vehicles to send stored electricity back to homes or the power grid. This means your EV will no longer be just a mode of transport. It can also act as a mobile energy storage unit.
The concept is simple. Owners would charge their cars when electricity consumption is low, typically during the night. During the day, when demand rises and electricity becomes more expensive, the car can feed the power back into the home or grid. This can potentially reduce electricity bills significantly.
This program will be rolled out in a phased manner. The setup for this will consist of a compatible EV, DC bidirectional charger, smart meter, and digital app- all interconnected.
Initially, customers will receive compensations for making their EVs available for energy trading. This compensation will be fully transparent and independent of trading performance. It will depend on how flexible the charging behaviour is. The end goal is to achieve cost-neutrality for charging.
According to Volkswagen and Elli, customers could save between €700 and €900 per year in home charging costs under ideal conditions. On a macroeconomic scale, V2G charging can potentially save up to €22 billion annually in Europe by 2040- say studies.
This is made possible by optimising when electricity is bought and when it is sold back. Over time, this could even bring charging costs close to zero, especially as energy markets evolve. If done right, this can be a great financial incentive for EV owners. The program is set to launch in Germany in the fourth quarter of 2026. Pre-registrations will commence from June 2025.
You may now have questions around compatibility now. Volkswagen says that around one million EVs from the .ID family are already capable of bidirectional charging, or as it says- ‘ bidi-ready’. Forming the technology base for this is Volkswagen’s modular electric drive matrix platform (MEB).
The upcoming ID. Software 6 will extend bidirectional charging functionality to even more battery sizes. Volume-focused Volkswagen EVs of the future may also qualify. The company is also working on ensuring that bidirectional charging doesn’t impact the vehicle’s battery life.
Volkswagen also says that it would extend the V2G program to other European markets in the future. It hasn’t, however, named specific countries or regions yet. Looks like Germany will serve as the perfect testing ground.
If successful globally, we may even see Volkswagen bring it to India, sometime after they introduce their global EVs here. The carmaker has long been evaluating electric vehicles like the ID.4 for the Indian market, but those plans haven’t materialised yet.
The initiative goes beyond mere cost savings and signifies a deeper integration between EVs and the power grid. Using EVs to power the grid during peak hours is said to be able to help stabilise electricity networks. It can reduce strain on traditional power sources.
Martin Sander, Volkswagen’s Board Member for Sales, Marketing, and After-Sales, emphasised that electric mobility must make economic sense for customers. “Electric mobility can only realize its full potential if it also makes economic sense for our customers. With Vehicle-to-Grid, we are delivering exactly that: significantly lower home charging costs- and, in the long term, nearly cost-free charging” - says Sander.
Talking about the initiative, Giovanni Palazzo, CEO of Elli,said: “ Vehicle-to-Grid delivers its full value only through the connection of vehicles, infrastructure and the energy market. And that is precisely why we established Elli as the energy interface within the Group.
Today, we have the technological and operational capabilities to scale an integrated solution across millions of vehicles and brands. We are now taking the next step: connecting batteries, unlocking new value through aggregation, and making our vision of a ‘Managed Battery Network’ a tangible reality for the first time.”