Honda and V2X Suisse In Vehicle-to-Grid Charging Tech deal
TOKYO, Jan 19, 2022 – Honda is partnering with the V2X Suisse consortium to demonstrate the vital role of EVs and bi-directional charging technology. The plan is part of Honda’s next step into the energy management business.
Honda will supply 50 Honda e electric vehicles to Switzerland’s car sharing operator, Mobility. The Honda e units will be used as part of a car sharing fleet in a pioneering trial which uses the Honda e’s bi-directional charging function. This will feed energy back to the grid when the vehicles are not in use for sharing.
To allow bi-directional charging, Honda is also providing 35 Honda Power Manager units. These will deliver vehicle-to-grid energy recovery capability for Mobility across Switzerland.
The V2X Suisse trial includes the world’s first mass-deployment of the COMBO-CCS (Combined Charging System) configuration with bi-directional functionality. Currently Honda e is the only electric vehicle in the European market to allow both charging and discharging. Complying with the European charging system CCS makes the Honda e the perfect vehicle to join the fleet.
Honda Power Manager is a bi-directional system that connects EVs to a power grid, enabling the collection and distribution of electricity between the two. This allows for intelligent balancing of the supply and demand of energy. Also for better use of renewable sources and supports the stabilisation of the grid.
In this project, a total of 50 Honda e units will be allocated to 40 stations across Switzerland. A Honda e can feed up to 20 kilowatts back into the grid when plugged into a bi-directional charging station. This not only regulates power to stabilise the grid during periods of high demand and minimise bottlenecks in the distribution of energy. It also reduces the need for expensive grid expansions as demand for EV charging increases.
Sustainable Society
Using sun2wheel’s cloud-to-cloud IT platform, the Honda Power Manager can manage the available power for each EV in 15 minute cycles. This allows it to assess and regulate the flow of electricity. The scheme will enable Honda to verify the relationship between vehicle usage frequency and V2G operation. Also the actual V2G operation time and frequency, and how this impacts on customer convenience.
Honda aims to create a sustainable society with zero environmental impact by connecting electrified mobility products and energy services.
This contributes to the ‘freedom of mobility’ and ‘expanding the use of renewable energy’. The smart electric car and the bi-directional charging system will become increasingly important in a future carbon neutral society. Both EVs and the use of renewable energy will become commonplace in our life.
Through a real-world demonstration, Honda can conduct data collection and analysis of car sharing and V2G battery energy services, which will lead to the development of Honda’s future energy services.
The actual demonstration of this project will start from September 2022, and will run until the end of 2023. It includes consortium members Mobility, EVTEC, sun2wheel, tiko, Novatlantis and ETH Zurich. It also has the support of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.
(JCN Newswire)