Honda and GM have joined forces in a new research project that aims to examine how electric cars and smart grids can work together in the future, with EV owners possibly leveraging their car batteries into new streams of revenue.
The project hopes to determine if electric vehicles can be used to stabilize the power supply of smart grids, but that’s not all. As Nikkei Asian Review reports on the further possibilities of the project:
The partners want to develop ways to facilitate the retrieval of information, such as data that is exchanged between power grids and electric vehicles. Down the road, EV owners could earn fees by storing power in car batteries and exchanging it with the grid. This could end up giving EV owners an advantage as their vehicles become revenue streams.
The project will be conducted under the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI), which lists both Honda and GM among its community members. MOBI aims to use “blockchain and related technologies to make mobility safer, greener, cheaper and more accessible.”
While the study will start this month, Nikkei says other partners could join later. It’s worth noting that among automakers, BMW, Ford, Renault, and Faraday Future are all listed as other MOBI members.
This partnership seems like a natural fit, as Honda and GM already make EV batteries together — the two automakers announced their battery partnership last year.
Smart Grids
Smart grids use renewable energy, and EV batteries could help with any intermittent power issues. Nikkei notes that “the technology to transfer surplus power between electric cars and homes is already in practical use. But systems to connect large numbers of electric vehicles to urban power grids remain in the experimental stage.”
One such large-scale experiment is happening on Scotland’s Orkney Islands, where a virtual “energy system of the future” is using battery storage and electric car batteries to balance out any dips in renewable energy generation.
Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.