This edition features the third installment of our V2G Value Series, where we examine why V2G’s clear societal benefits still aren’t reflected in project revenues, a classic missing-money problem slowing commercial adoption. Paired with this is new academic research showing that V2G doesn’t just help integrate renewables; it can drive new wind and solar investment by reshaping demand and reducing curtailment.
We also cover a wave of global V2G momentum. India and Ireland both issued major analyses positioning bidirectional charging as central to their flexibility and decarbonization goals. And in a landmark move, Germany has eliminated the double charging of V2G electricity, one of the most impactful policy shifts we’ve seen for bidirectional charging in any market. Add new developments from BMW, Heliox, Nuvve, and more, and it’s clear the V2G landscape is evolving fast! 🚗💨
V2G Insights
Filling the Missing-Money Gap: What It Will Take to Finance V2G at Scale
November 18, 2025
This article is the third installment in our V2G Value Series. The first article explored the often-overlooked customer-facing benefits of bidirectional charging, from lowering the total cost of EV ownership to enhancing household and fleet resilience. The second article introduced a structured framework for understanding grid-facing value across three categories: behind-the-meter optimization, avoided-cost-based programs, and market participation. That framework helped clarify where V2G value comes from and why stakeholders often talk past one another.
Despite growing clarity around the benefits of bidirectional charging, V2G has struggled to move beyond pilots into sustained commercial deployment. The core issue is no longer technical feasibility; it’s the inability to translate V2G’s demonstrated value into the kind of predictable, durable revenue streams that attract private capital. Understanding why this gap persists is essential to understanding what it will take for V2G to scale.
Understanding the Missing-Money Problem
Even as the technical case for V2G strengthens, the economic case remains incomplete. Bidirectional EVs can support reliability, integrate renewable energy, and provide grid services, but the revenue streams available to project developers and fleet operators are still too limited, too uncertain, and too fragmented to justify the capital investments required.
This dynamic came into sharp focus in the academic research featured in this edition’s V2G Intelligence feature, which showed how V2G can catalyze new investment in wind and solar generation. Those benefits accrue to the grid and to society, through lower system costs, reduced curtailment, and deeper renewable penetration, but they do not accrue to the EV owner or V2G aggregator. That gap between who benefits and who gets paid is a core part of the challenge.
In other words, V2G suffers from a classic missing-money problem: the societal benefits are real and substantial, but the compensation available to private developers and customers does not reflect them.
V2G Intelligence
V2G Grid Modeling Shows How Bidirectional Charging Drives Renewables Investment
November 18, 2025
Negative Electric Vehicle Emissions: Vehicle-to-Grid Can Incentivize Enough Wind and Solar Investment to Reverse EV Charging Emissions, by Jiahui Chen, Michael T. Craig, Jeremy Michalek, Matthew Bruchon, and Parth Vaishnav. Published in Environmental Science & Technology (2025).
A Note from Steve
When I co-authored one of the first academic papers on vehicle-to-grid technology with Dr. Kempton back in 1997, the central idea was that electric vehicles could become dynamic assets for a renewable energy grid, storing wind and solar power when it’s plentiful and returning it when it’s needed most. Nearly three decades later, it’s deeply rewarding to see rigorous, data-driven research confirming that early vision. What was once a theoretical possibility is now an emerging reality, one that validates the promise that first drew me to this field and continues to drive my work today.
Electric vehicles have long been championed as a cornerstone of the clean energy transition, but their environmental story has always come with an asterisk: EVs eliminate tailpipe emissions, yet they still depend on the power grid, which may rely heavily on fossil fuels. A new study from researchers at the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon University turns this narrative on its head, showing that bidirectional charging using vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology could do far more than simply shift emissions from tailpipes to smokestacks. It could make them go negative.
In the article Negative Electric Vehicle Emissions: Vehicle-to-Grid Can Incentivize Enough Wind and Solar Investment to Reverse EV Charging Emissions, Jiahui Chen and colleagues provide one of the most sophisticated examinations yet of how electric vehicles interact with power system evolution. Their finding is as bold as it is consequential: if EVs charge flexibly and participate in V2G programs, they can create strong economic incentives to build additional wind and solar capacity, enough to more than offset the emissions produced from charging. In short, EVs could become a driver of grid decarbonization rather than simply a new source of demand to be managed.
Modeling a Dynamic Grid
The researchers used a highly detailed unit commitment and economic dispatch model of the PJM Interconnection, the largest grid operator in the U.S., and a proxy for the North American grid mix. Most studies of EV-grid interactions stop at short-term operational impacts, how and when vehicles draw power. This one goes further, capturing how those charging patterns influence long-run investment decisions in new sources of power generation.ng prevent the fragmented regulatory landscape that slowed earlier distributed energy resource (DER) adoption.
V2G Finds
Germany Removes Double Charging, Clearing a Major Barrier to V2G Participation
Germany has adopted a major regulatory change that removes the longstanding “double charging” of electricity used in bidirectional charging, a significant breakthrough for V2G adoption in Europe’s largest energy market. Under the new rules, electricity drawn from the grid, stored in an EV or stationary battery, and later fed back to the grid will no longer incur grid fees or electricity tax. This aligns bidirectionally capable EVs with stationary storage for the first time, addressing a key structural barrier that made V2G economically unattractive. The move comes alongside a parallel consultation on simplified metering rules (MiSpeL), which could allow households to export energy without a second meter. Together, these changes could finally open the door to commercial V2G in Germany, where participation could be worth up to €500 per year for EV owners by 2030, according to recent analysis.
11/14/2025
Heliox Unveils 44 kW DC V2G Charger Built for U.S. Fleets and Buy America Compliance
Heliox, now part of Siemens, has introduced a 44 kW DC bidirectional charger designed specifically for fleet electrification and compliant with key U.S. standards, including UL 1741 SB, UL 9741, and Buy America requirements. The unit supports ISO 15118-20 and SAE J2847, offers flexible installation options, and enables fleets to access V2G revenue streams, backup power, and TOU-optimized charging. While not a breakthrough in raw power, it’s an important signal that major OEM-backed charging manufacturers are now delivering commercially viable, standards-aligned V2G hardware for the U.S. market, which is a critical step for scaling school bus and depot-based fleet projects.
11/5/2025
Nuvve’s Q3 Results Show Modest Revenue Growth Amid Ongoing Losses
Nuvve’s third-quarter financial update reflects a mixed picture for one of the sector’s longest-running V2G providers. The company reported $1.6 million in Q3 revenue, up from the first half of the year, and modest growth in megawatts under management, rising to 26.4 MW from 25.6 MW in Q2. Nuvve also noted continued progress in expanding its stationary battery aggregation pipeline across North America, Europe, and Japan. However, these gains were offset by a net loss of $4.8 million for the quarter, driven by higher operating expenses and a shift toward more hardware-heavy sales. Overall, the results signal incremental commercial traction but underscore the financial pressures facing early V2G platform companies as the market continues to mature.
11/13/2025
BMW Partners with Kaluza to Bring Native V2G Connectivity to BMW and Mini EVs
BMW Group has partnered with Kaluza to enable true vehicle-to-grid (V2G) connectivity across BMW and Mini electric models, a major milestone in automaker-led V2G integration. Through a direct API connection between BMW’s Remote Charging Control system and Kaluza’s flexibility platform, participating EVs will be able to automatically export power and respond to grid conditions in real time. The partnership represents one of the clearest examples yet of an OEM embracing V2G as a core functionality rather than an add-on, positioning BMW to participate in emerging flexibility markets and enabling EV owners to access new value streams. With a contract-to-go-live timeline of just three months, this collaboration demonstrates how quickly V2G can scale when automakers and energy platforms align.
11/12/2025
Ireland Positions V2G as a Core Tool for Grid Flexibility and Renewable Integration
A new analysis from EY Ireland argues that smart charging and V2G will be essential to meeting the country’s aggressive flexibility targets as renewable penetration rises. The report notes that EVs could store and reinject up to 10% of Europe’s power by 2040, offering peak shaving, reduced curtailment, and deferred grid upgrades. EY’s modeling also shows meaningful customer savings through V1G and V2G services. This perspective mirrors the academic research highlighted in this edition, which found that V2G can directly stimulate investment in new renewable capacity. Ireland’s framing adds to a growing global consensus, from India to Europe, that EV flexibility will be a foundational resource in balancing high-renewables grids.
11/10/2025
New Study Shows Most EV Drivers Still Don’t Understand Bidirectional Charging
New data from Europe’s PAVE project shows just how far consumer understanding of bidirectional charging still has to go: 70% of the public has never heard of V2G, and only 16% of long-time EV drivers grasp what bidirectional charging can actually do. These findings echo what we reported in Volume 1 | Issue 3: What Consumers Really Think About V2G?, namely, that awareness remains one of the biggest market barriers, even as automakers and charger manufacturers bring real products to market. The PAVE results also point to a clear path forward: solar-equipped households are the most eager early adopters, and the value proposition, backup power, bill savings, and grid services, is strong. Europe’s largest V2G pilot is a reminder that technology is racing ahead, but consumer understanding is still playing catch-up.
11/3/2025
Renault’s New £20k Twingo EV Brings Bidirectional Charging to the Mass Market
Renault has unveiled the Twingo E-Tech, a sub-£20,000 city EV launching in 2027 with bidirectional AC charging standard, a notable development as automakers begin embedding V2G and V2L capabilities into truly mass-market models. With a lightweight LFP battery, 50 kW DC fast charging, and a range of 163 miles, the Twingo shows how bidirectional functionality isn’t just for premium vehicles anymore. If Europe’s A-segment EVs adopt V2G at scale, these low-cost models could become meaningful contributors to local grid flexibility and household energy savings, an important signal for regions like the U.S. still working to make V2G accessible beyond early adopters.
11/7/2025
India Sees V2G as the Key to Unlocking Renewable Energy: A Global Signal of What’s Coming
In a new interview, Raman Bhatia, Managing Director of Servotech Renewable Power System Ltd, makes a compelling case for why India views V2G and bidirectional charging as “the missing link” for scaling solar and wind. Bhatia outlines how EVs can serve as mobile storage to stabilise the grid, displace gas peaker plants, and accelerate 24/7 renewable integration, with early fleet pilots capable of delivering 5–10 MW of flexible capacity within just two years. His perspective echoes the academic research featured in this edition, showing how V2G can spur new investment in clean energy resources. India’s emerging strategy reinforces a global trend: V2G is being understood not just as a charging feature, but as a foundational tool for renewable energy growth.
11/8/2025
