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As we commence our bush fire and flood season here in the Southern Hemisphere, the conversation continues in the electric vehicle community about the use of privately owned battery electric vehicles as an emergency backup in a crisis, or even possibly as a backup to the grid. Bidirectional charging is once again in the news. Australian summer disasters are becoming more frequent and of a greater intensity as they are fuelled by rampant climate change.
As most of the BEVs on Australian roads are Teslas, the question could rightly be asked: Is Tesla missing an opportunity here? Can Tesla Model 3s and Model Ys be easily transmogrified? Arthur Hunt has raised this issue before with CleanTechnica readers. He put this question to the Tesla Owners Club of Australia after reading this article that claims that bidirectional charging is built into Tesla Model 3s and Model Ys already. Tesla just has to enable it through an over-the-air update.
Arthur wrote: “I suggest that TOCA should make contact with Tesla to recommend that this should be made available in Australia. It is ironic that many other brands can do this but Tesla cannot. I have used V2L from my daughter’s MG on two occasions during power outages to power household appliances and maintain internet communication. I have also used it to boil a kettle on a picnic and to power an electric drill.
“It can be used:
During power outages for domestic power, including for life-saving medical equipment
When camping
To power a caravan
To power electric tools off-grid
“I expect that Tesla will lose market share since other brands offer this facility. A Powerwall is not an equivalent as it has a lower capacity and it is not mobile. If V2G becomes available, it will be a revenue stream for EV owners.”
My car made my coffee. MG4 has bidirectional charging. Photo courtesy Peter Scott.
The answer from TOCA Vice President Ross Hetherington was authoritative but disappointing.
“Presently, apart from the Cybertruck in the US, no Tesla is capable of Bi-Directional Charging at this time. It is not a software issue but hardware. There are no two-way bridges on the charging circuit to support Bi-Directional Charging.
“Tesla believed that Bi-Directional Charging would degrade the battery far quicker than expected. Additionally, their belief was that people would rather wake up to a full battery than a semi-depleted one after an evening of providing power to the house.
“This theory is supported somewhat by batteries in Virtual Power Plant schemes where the battery is constantly charging and discharging over the course of a day. Battery life is governed by the number of charge/discharge cycles.
“However, demand has shown that pulling 5 kW to power appliances etc or act as a back-up during an outage has its benefits and certainly Tesla needs to give people that option and adjust its design to suit.
“Drew Baglino (Tesla’s Senior VP of Powertrain and Energy Engineering) confirmed about the time of the Cybertruck release this year that Tesla would include a bi-directional capability in their vehicles in 2025. While we always must remain cautious of Tesla’s time lines, they are certainly aware of the competition now in the EV market and I am sure they will make this feature available in the near future along with many others (fingers crossed).
“Surprisingly, there is a lot of fake news out there, one of which is that Tesla simply needs to flick a switch to enable bi-directional charging. This is simply untrue. The entire inverter and motherboard charging assembly would need to be replaced and software updates to make bi-directional charging a reality.
“Munro Engineering did a video on this very subject a few years ago in one of his strip downs and found the hardware was only for charging the battery and not the reverse.”
In a followup email, Ross shared more of his thoughts with me on the matter:
“While some is fact, most is opinion on what Tesla will do in the future. Clearly, I believe market forces will push Tesla to V2G / V2L technology in the near future. However, Musk has never been a supporter of it — as he said, when you want to use the car, you have to unplug it and then your house lights will go out.
“But there are other uses for it such as powering appliances on camping trips, and if there is a black out (because of a storm), you have probably stayed home to avoid the storm anyway and your car will be in the garage! Why not power the house!
Cleaning up after the Brisbane flood using Hyundai Ioniq 5 to power a high pressure cleaner. Photo courtesy Paul Guard.
“I can understand a house battery is the best solution for off grid or even lowing power bills on a VPP set up. I would be reluctant to let a VPP control my car battery but happy for them to use my house one due to battery degradation and control over how much battery power I have in my car — imagine how annoying it would be to have an emergency and you need to duck out only to find your car battery is low because it had discharged to the grid.
“However, Tesla has always added more and more features for owners through regular over the air software updates and this bidirectional capability would be an important next step in Tesla’s continual improvement methodology for its vehicles.
“That all said, the car is only but one aspect of powering your house with your Tesla. An expensive bidirectional wall charger is needed for this, the cost of which may outweigh any benefit from powering your house from your car.
“I think Tesla knows needs to stay ahead of other brands like BYD and Hyundai (Tesla still has the best battery management system and technology built into the car than the other brands and the Supercharger Plug and Play feature is second to none) so it only makes sense that they will include this capability in the next gigafactory retooling upgrade.
“Tesla is still learning about competition. It is relatively new to them. I think now they have picked up the gauntlet (one they themselves threw down to other car brands ten years ago) and I won’t be surprised to see some incredible features and improvements in Teslas over the next two years. If I was a betting person, I would think battery tech will be the next major focus for Tesla over the short term.”
Thank you for the question, Arthur, and the thoughtful response, Ross. Now let’s hear from the man himself: “Vehicle-to-grid sounds good, but I think actually has a much lower utility than people think. I think it’s actually going to be better for people’s freedom of action to have a Powerwall and a car,” Musk said during Battery Day.
“Very few people would actually use vehicle-to-grid. We actually had that with the original Roadster. We had vehicle-to-grid capabilities — nobody used it. It’s obviously very problematic if [in the morning] your car, instead of being charged, it discharged into the house,” Musk said.
With power prices rising and battery capabilities improving, now might be the time to move towards V2L. Indeed, the California legislature is considering a bill that would mandate vehicle-to-grid/load capability in all models of electric cars produced after 2027. California leads the way in electric vehicles and its huge market uptake will dictate where the market goes, and other states will follow.
As I write this, bushfire season is beginning in Australia and the USA is being battered by a hurricane. Indeed, one of my editors is in a predicament in North Carolina with her power and water out and unable to work. Her BMW i3 cannot power her home. Thinking ahead, Australia’s Solar Citizens has launched a campaign to encourage our federal government to ensure that as many EVs as possible can support the grid with bi-directional charging.
“With the introduction of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) from 1 January 2025, the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) in Australia is expected to increase dramatically in the next few years. This shift will lead to increased demand for grid energy, and if managed poorly this could lead to additional stress on the grid at peak times. However properly supported vehicle-to-grid offers a potential game-changer for increased household energy storage to support demand management and grid support services.”
The rEVolution continues apace down under. Changes are being made. The future is bright, electric, and bi-directional!
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