Volkswagen’s energy and charging solutions subsidiary Elli has this week launched a bidirectional charging pilot that it says can reduce charging costs by up to 75 per cent.
Elli, which was founded in 2018, says its pilot project is centred around an 11 kilowatt (kW) bidirectional charger that connects a home’s solar system and electric vehicle (EV) with a modular software platform.
The bidirectional charger was developed in partnership with German solar PV and charging infrastructure company Cubos and enables the EV battery to be used as a home energy storage system, helping to power a home with solar energy.
Elli’s software platform manages energy from the grid, EV, and the home, leading to significantly reduced charging costs “under certain conditions” – in some cases by up to 75 per cent.
Elli’s new “Managed Battery Network” (MBN), the company’s virtual power plant, will optimise the use of renewable energy by storing it at specific times of day and making it available later through wholesale energy trading.
“With our pilot project at IAA Mobility 2025, we’re opening a new chapter in the history of electric mobility,” said Giovanni Palazzo, CEO of Elli.
“Bidirectional charging is the enabler of energy self-sufficiency at home, and with the initial rollout of our Managed Battery Network, we are elevating vehicle batteries and storage systems to the level of critical energy resources. In doing so, we’re bridging the gap between mobility and energy.”
While it will likely take a while for Elli’s new bidirectional charging technology to be available globally, Volkswagen confirmed at IAA Mobility that it would launch the pilot in Germany later this year.
As part of the project, which is open to Volkswagen’s customers and solar panel provider Otovo’s customers, Elli will provide selected participants with one of its new bidirectional chargers.
Longer-term, Elli hopes to integrate large-scale energy storage systems along with hundreds of thousands of EV batteries across Europe into a massive Managed Battery Network, enabling better use of renewable energy and accelerating the energy transition.
Firstly, though, and beginning in 2026, Elli will connect several hundred EVs to a virtual power plant and market the resulting flexibilities via its own trading operations on the EPEX intraday power exchange.
Elli is also launching its large-scale energy storage business. The new Elli PowerCenter is being completed in Salzgitter in December, boasting 20 megawatts (MW) and 40 megawatt-hours (MWh) in lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery packs from PowerCo, which will eventually serve as a platform for energy trading and future grid services.
