Batteries on wheels: If Australia really wants smart EVs with V2G, it will have to say so

A new report is calling for Australia to get on the front foot in the shift to electric cars by ensuring as many EVs as possible are enabled to act as “batteries on wheels” and can soak up plentiful solar during the day and use it to “provide almost any service the grid needs.”

Vehicle-to-grid, or V2G, is an emerging technology that holds promise for enhancing grid stability, managing peak demand, and better integrating renewables, while also offering big potential financial benefits for energy consumers, including those without an EV.

But as EV uptake starts to ramp up in Australia, aided in part by the introduction of the National Vehicle Efficiency Standard in January 2025, the concern is that under the NVES Australia will import thousands of EVs that will not be V2G-enabled.

The Batteries on Wheels report, prepared for the Solar Citizens by Ajaya Haikerwal and Gabrielle Kuiper, calls on governments and regulators to take urgent action to prevent this from happening, by setting V2G standards for EVs imported to Australia.

And it sets out the other pieces of the puzzle that will need to fall into place in Australia – changes to technical and regulatory energy market standards, policy incentives, tariff reviews, and more – to ensure that we can take full advantage of V2G enabled EVs when they come.

According to the report, while all EVs are capable of smart charging, very few that are currently sold in Australia are capable of V2X (also known as vehicle-to-everything), and fewer still are V2G-enabled.

In fact, there are only three EV models in Australia capable of V2G, the report says; two of them plug-in hybrid EVs (with relatively much smaller batteries around 13-20 kW) and one the all-electric Nissan Leaf. And all of these use a type of charger Australia – and the world – is leaning away from (CHAdeMO).

In Europe, meanwhile, there are around 43 models capable of V2G while, globally, many vehicle manufacturers, especially in China and Korea, are planning V2X models.

“We’ve spoken to Hyundai, Nissan and BYD, and they’re all really interested in vehicle to grid technology, but they’re not prioritising it yet, because we don’t have all the components… [in place] to warrant the investment in vehicles that come to Australia,” Solar Citizens CEO Heidi Lee Douglas told The Driven on Tuesday.

“When I’ve spoken to BYD, for instance …they’ve said that they they can provide that technology now, but it costs them a little bit extra to put it in the car.

“So that’s why we need the government signals to make sure that the manufacturers are prioritising that, so that consumers don’t have to work it out later.

“Just like with the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, if we don’t have these government legislations or regulations to signal to manufacturers to put us at the front of the queue for the best technology, then we’ll get the old technology.”

In other words, while the NVES might stop Australia from becoming a dumping ground for the world’s most polluting fossil fuelled cars, if we don’t get all of its settings right we risk becoming a dumping ground for the least intelligent EVs.

“What I’ve heard is that in California, which is in an energy system quite similar to ours, that there’s an abundance of Teslas sitting there in garages that can’t be used as batteries on wheels,” Douglas says.

“We want to prevent that problem by getting ahead of it. Now that we have these new vehicle efficiency standards, let’s make sure that those vehicles are getting bought into Australia can really be maximised in terms of their cost of living benefits and carbon reductions as well, plus grid stability.

“If [EVs] become part of a network system… we can then help each other to stabilise the grid, and that can help to reduce need for more transmission infrastructure.”

And there’s plenty to lose – or miss out on – if we do get stuck with the “old technology.”

As the report explains, V2G allows EVs to serve as mobile energy storage units, leveraging their batteries – which have exponentially greater storage capacity than the average home battery – to store excess energy from the grid.

This stored energy can then be orchestrated and discharged back to the grid during peak demand periods or when renewable energy generation is low, helping to balance supply and demand and support grid stability.

“V2G-enabled EVs can be utilised by the energy system as Consumer Energy Resources (CER), responding quickly to signals to export, import or store electricity and in theory can provide almost any service the grid needs,” the report says.

And the value of these services could be huge. According to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), V2G could account for over a third of total energy storage by 2030, deferring the need for $94 billion in large-scale battery storage investment.

For consumers, meanwhile, the report says that the financial benefit for an EV owner participating in V2G services is estimated conservatively at $1000 per year, by performing a whole suite of grid services.

Of course, it’s not an uncomplicated task. V2G systems require “a multitude of standards,” the report says, related to chargers/EVSE (Electric Vehicle Service Equipment), communications interfaces between chargers, the car, the grid, other smart
devices, batteries, and safety.

Then there are the grid-side technical and regulatory changes that need to be made to accommodat v2G, as well as changes to tariff design and other retail arrangements.

Consumer buy-in will also be crucial. As the report notes, “orchestrated V2G (where the energy operator can utilise multiple V2G assets for grid services) is the goal, but only if consumers can opt in and out freely.”

Financial incentives – perhaps boosted by government rebates – will be key to this, but Douglas says Solar Citizens has found plenty of interest in V2G within its own 200,000-plus supporter base.

“What we know from the work we’ve done with our own supporters is they’re keen as mustard to get vehicle to grid enabled,” she tells The Driven.

“And a lot of people that we’ve met at community stalls that we do – that grassroots work – have also said to us, they want to make sure that the EVS they’re buying have V2G.

“And that’s because a lot of people who are really concerned about cost of living, people who are retiring, for instance, they want to make sure that … they get the biggest bang for their buck. And they can’t necessarily afford to buy a household battery and an electric vehicle, so they want something that can do both.”

Ultimately, the comprehensive Solar Citizens report delivers five policy recommendations, starting with the call to add a V2G-enabled EV requirement into the NVES.

“In 2027, California will introduce a requirement for all EVs sold in the state to be V2G capable.29 As the world’s 8th largest economy, this could signal the future market direction to manufacturers,” it says.

“Australia should review the effectiveness of the California requirement on V2G-enabled EV supply, as well as any unintended consequences on EV supply more broadly.”

“In the 2026 [NVES] review, [Australia should] investigate how the NVES could be used to signal to manufacturers the readiness of Australia for V2G technology and align their production as such.”