Queensland based battery and energy management company RedEarth Energy Storage has become one of the first companies out of the blocks on vehicle to grid (V2G) technology, announcing an Australian manufacturing deal for bidirectional chargers that will enable electric cars to act as batteries on wheels.
RedEarth has signed its deal with ambibox to produce the German company’s V2G bi-directional EV chargers at its manufacturing facility in Darra, Queensland. The chargers will enable EV owners to charge or discharge their EVs to their home or to the grid.
The news comes little more than a week after federal energy and climate minister Chris Bowen announced that new standards have been agreed for the charging equipment that will pave the way for V2G technology, seen as a boost to both consumers and for the electricity system as a whole because of the significant amounts of storage that could be made available to the grid.
Some EV makers will offer an AC solution for V2G with technology and inverters offered as hardware within the car, while others will rely on bidirectional chargers from 3rd parties, such as RedEarth and ambibox, to deliver the technology.
“RedEarth’s partnership with ambibox opens new opportunities for electric vehicle owners to use their EVs as private power plants,” says Charles Walker, the co-founder and CEO of RedEarth.
“While rooftop solar and home battery ownership have traditionally been the drivers of the growth of distributed energy resources in Australia, the adoption of EVs has accelerated.
“With the introduction of V2X standards, RedEarth and ambibox will optimise the returns both for EV owners and homeowners with behind the meter assets and we’ll be well placed to serve customers as EV adoption gathers pace.”
RedEarth has not released the pricing for the V2G chargers but they are likely to be considerably less than the around $10,000 price for the first generation of chargers that were used in Nissan Leaf EVs and Mitsubishi Outlanders in a series of trials around Australia.
Jon Sibley, a consultant with enX and an expert in distributed energy resources, told Renew Economy’s Energy Insiders podcast last week that the new generation of chargers would likely be up to half that price. RedEarth indicated to The Driven that was in the ball park of what they are thinking.
The potential of V2G is generating excitement in the car industry, among EV drivers, with grid operators, and even energy utilities. It signals the possibility of using the car as a kind of giant home battery to provide back-up and also to earn money selling power and services back to the grid.
A study led by Sibley in late 2022 suggested that by the early 2030’s, EV fleet battery capacity is likely to surpass all other
forms of storage in the country’s, including Snowy 2.0, and at a fraction of the price. Other studies have suggested V2G technology could save tens of billions of dollars in grid costs.
Walker says RedEarth sees V2G as an important part of its goal to the evolution of behind the meter optimisation that is the key part of the “shift”mega trend” to electrification.
“RedEarth will be the first Australian EV charger manufacturer to be producing bi-directional chargers locally,” he says.
“In addition, we will pave the way for EV owners to be incentivised with additional revenue streams to power the grid and to reduce their reliance on grid electricity by using RedEarth’s private power plant ecosystem.”
RedEarth says the ambibox EV chargers are three phase compatible wall chargers and have been successfully tested with the vast majority of EVs available in Australia.
Ambibox says it has completed official testing with Ford, VW (for its soon to be released ID.Buzz), and Polestar, and  its own testing with the likes of the Hyundai Ioniq 5, the BYD Atto 3, the MG4, BMW i4, Audi, and even the Tesla Model Y.
The three phase EV charger is on track to be available in the second quarter of 2025 and the single phase version is expected to be available in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Founded in 2013, RedEarth makes residential and commercial scale batteries at its Brisbane headquarters and its “private power plant ecosystem” enables customers to make, use, store and trade power.
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of The Driven, and also edits and founded the Renew Economy and One Step Off The Grid web sites. He has been a journalist for nearly 40 years, is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review, and owns a Tesla Model 3.