Would you like to be able to charge bidirectionally to make optimal use of the enormous battery pack of your electric car, so that you have a home battery on wheels and can save considerably on energy costs? Then you are faced with a challenge, because at the time of writing there are very few models and charging stations that make this possible. Bidirectional charging, with which car is this possible and which models do we expect in the near future that are equipped with this technology?
A handful of models are already suitable for bidirectional charging
These are the electric cars that already support bidirectional charging:
- The Nissan Leaf (one of the pioneers)
- The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV
- The Kia Soul
- The new Volvo EX90 (2024)
- The Nissan e-NV200
- Polestar 3
These models can partly charge bidirectionally or are fully prepared
That is a very limited list at the time of writing, but that is not the whole story. There are also quite a few models that are partially suitable or that are prepared (often these models involve a software update that is needed to enable bidirectional charging). This list is considerable and new models are constantly being added. At the moment, the following models are on the threshold of bidirectional charging:
- Kia EV6
- Hyundai IONIQ 5
- Renault ZOE
- Porsche Taycan
- Volkswagen ID.4 and the Volkswagen ID.5
- Lucid Air
- BMW i3 and BMW i4
- Audi e-Tron
- Ford F-150 Lightning
- Mercedes Benz EQE and the EQS
Why do I see much longer lists in many places?
If you search for which cars can charge bidirectionally and you come across very long lists of car models, then there is a big chance that people have taken the term bidirectional charging a bit more freely than we do. The lists above are about cars that can charge V2H or V2G, so electric cars that can supply power back to an entire home or the entire network.
If the lists are much longer than the lists you see here, the website has assumed V2L, or Vehicle to Load. This technology is available in many more models and all you need is a V2L adapter to connect an electrical device. This is usually not what is meant by bidirectional charging, because that involves car models that can send power via the charging station to the smart meter, which can then distribute the energy over the network.
Many car manufacturers are working on this technology
Almost all renowned car brands are working on implementing, further developing and rolling out the possibilities around bidirectional charging. This means that we expect many more models that enable bidirectional charging in the coming years. If the charging station manufacturers follow these developments (which is very likely), this means that we can expect the first major steps within a few years. The question is, however, what the developments will do to the average price of the cars and the charging stations that enable bidirectional charging.
View the current range of bidirectional charging solutions here
