- China’s National Development and Reform Commission plans to implement a vehicle-to-grid trial covering every province of the country, in the coming months.
- The trial will be used to examine the commercial and technical viability of vehicle-to-grid technology in China, as the country’s electricity demand increases with the number of EVs on the road.
- Under the test, each province will be asked to choose one city within which to setup a V2G system.
China begins widespread vehicle-to-grid exploration
China now has over a significant number of EVs on the road, with 8.1 million new EVs sold last year, expected to rise to a total of 10 million for 2024. With the associated charging and battery swapping coming from this huge growth, related energy demand is growing significantly year on year. It’s therefore the perfect time to begin exploring how V2G could benefit the country, to help support the energy grid. The trial was revealed in a document discovered by Bloomberg, earlier this week. Under the test, each city nominated will need to aim for 60% of EV charging to be carried out outside of peak hours, with that figure rising to 80% when it comes to private EV charging. This will be encouraged through reduced pricing during these hours.
China has already seen V2G trials with local firms such as NIO and Teld, but not on the scale of this upcoming test. It isn’t the only country beginning to experiment with V2G, either. UK energy provider, Octopus Energy, launched the country’s first V2G tariff earlier this year, but only supporting a small number of compatible EVs with bidirectional charging, such as the Nissan Leaf. There’s an onus on the OEMs to implement bidirectional charging into their EVs, to make this solution a success around the world.
