Hyundai to allow its EV batteries to do “Vehicle to Everything”

Hyundai is planning to extend the bidirectional charging capabilities in its battery electric vehicles (BEVs), so they can play an integral role as part of the electricity grid, as well as powering to devices.

Currently, the South Korean automaker’s Ioniq 5 is capable of what is known as “vehicle-to-load”, otherwise known as V2L, which allows drivers to draw a charge from the car’s battery. For example, to boil a kettle when out camping, or to charge the laptop when using the car as a “mobile office”.

With a battery that can store enough energy to power a home for 4 days under the floor, the use of this kind of transformational technology changes cars from purely transport products to a kind of mobile energy storage.

Hyundai now plans to join the likes of Nissan by extending its technology to include vehicle-to-grid. Nissan has long had V2G tech in its Leaf, and has used in past emergency applications supplying power to recovery efforts, for example after the Fukushima disaster.

In addition to using V2G for emergency efforts, this technology allows energy stored in BEV battery packs to be transferred to an electricity network, commonly known as a “grid.”

The energy stored in BEVs not only helps to stabilise the grid, but it also feeds the system to help manage energy demand during peak times and emergencies.

Hyundai says it has been trialling a number of Ioniq 5s modified with V2G technology – which requires a different interface and inverter system to V2L – in two “V2X” (vehicle-to-everything) projects in the Netherlands and Germany.

To support V2G, BEVs must have the necessary hardware, such as a bidirectional onboard charger that allows energy to flow to and from the battery pack, as well as software to govern the discharge.

Because only a small portion of the battery capacity is required for driving, the remaining energy can be fed back into the grid and used by local energy distribution companies.

In the Netherlands, Hyundai is trialling its V2G technology with We Drive Solar, a Dutch mobility company, in Utrecht.

As part of a project that aims to see the medieval city become the “world’s first bidirectional city”, We Drive Solar is deploying a fleet of 25 Ioniq 5 cars in a car-sharing scheme for inhabitants of new housing projects.

A second trial in Germany is looking at how EVs can be used in “vehicle-to-home” (V2H) applications.

Cradle Berlin, Hyundai’s corporate venturing and open innovation firm, is leading the V2H pilot project in which a specialised Ioniq 5 fleet is used in a closed home energy system, to evaluate the potential to exchange energy between the car and the house.