GM competitors BMW, Ford, and Honda are forming an alliance to launch an EV grid services platform with the name of ChargeScape, with each of the three partners holding an equal ownership share in the new enterprise.
ChargeScape will provide managed charging services for EVs, saving electric vehicle owners money by charging at lower-cost times of day while using vehicle-to-grid (V2G) to transfer EV battery power to the grid at peak hours.
The service that the Blue Oval, Ford, and Honda plan to offer with their joint ChargeScape venture will supply managed charging and EV energy sharing capabilities to owners of many different makes and models of electric vehicles. ChargeScape uses Open Vehicle-Grid Integration Platform (OVGIP) technology.
Customers with EVs will be able to use ChargeScape to get their vehicle batteries charged at off-peak hours when costs are lower. The immediate effect should be savings on the recharging process. Additionally, these charging times will coordinate with increased levels of renewable energy availability on the grid, giving customers a reduction in their carbon footprint.
The smart energy management of ChargeScape will also “eventually” improve the resiliency of the electric grid. The vehicle-to-grid service will enable EV owners to share stored battery energy with the power grid when demand is highest if they opt to do so.
“ChargeScape will help accelerate the true potential of the EV revolution by providing significant benefits to both utilities and EV customers,” Ford’s charging and energy chief Bill Crider declared. The three companies will use telematics on their vehicles to set up charge schedules and achieve the desired results, removing the need for Wi-Fi charging station connectivity.
The actual launch of ChargeScape is on hold while the partnership waits for the regulatory green light to proceed. The three companies expect the necessary approvals to arrive in time to start offering ChargeScape services at the beginning of 2024.
In the meantime, GM has developed its own energy management ecosystem under the GM Energy brand, potentially at least partially competing with ChargeScape. The system will combine the Ultium Charge 360 service with the new Ultium Home and Ultium Commercial services to enable customers to gain greater control over their electricity usage while owning an EV.
The GM Energy ecosystem will use vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid bi-directional charging to lower the impact of blackouts or outages. In addition, drawing power from the EV battery during peak hours may enable users to power their homes at full capacity at times when rates are high without incurring the higher costs they would rack up without the system’s help.
A related home energy system made in partnership with solar technology enterprise SunPower and other companies will arrive concurrent with the 2024Â Chevy Silverado EV launch. Travis Hester, vice president of GM EV Growth Operations, says GM Energy and its related technology will “help to reduce the barriers of entry for sustainable power and further accelerate the mass adoption of EVs.”
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Comments
The ability to put power back into the grid had better be a choice left up to the owner. Prediction that absolutely none, zero of them will choose to do it or they won’t be able to drive their Energy-Hogs to work the next morning. All this tech sounds great but keeping it maintained and getting it installed is going to be fun.
The marketplace will sort this out. We are going through a tremendous shift, and there are going to be successes and failures as we learn. This is an opportunity for ingenuity to shine and hopefully help the planet in the long run.
Slowly but surly battery’s keep less charge till there is no charging possible , disposable cars that is the future
So correct me if I’m wrong here, but why wouldn’t you just charge your vehicle at night while you sleep. How does the system charging your vehicle at non-peak times work out better than the end user plugging in at non-peak times? Is everyone to leave their vehicle on the charger 24/7 so that the utilities company can discharge your battery during peak hours and charge during non-peak hours? What happens if you need to head out of town before it started charging during non-peak hours?
The definition of insanity. Doing stupid things over and over again to appease Biden and expecting a different result.