Select models in Volkswagen’s ID. family now offer bidirectional charging with the “Vehicle to Home” function. With a home power station and the integrated Home Energy Management System (HEMS) from Volkswagen partner HagerEnergy GmbH, customers can cover as much of their household consumption as possible with their photovoltaic system. Both companies have launched a pilot project in Sweden in which an entire housing estate is being supplied with vehicles and the corresponding charging infrastructure.

ID. models with the 77 kWh battery (net) will be able to use the bidirectional charging function to store electricity at home. VW will also be able to activate the function for vehicles that have already been delivered as soon as they have received ID. Software version 3.5 via an update.

Thanks to the high storage capacity, a house can also be supplied with solar power over several cloudy days or in the evening when the sun has set and the photovoltaic system is no longer supplying electricity. Customers can decide for themselves when they want to draw energy from the public grid or use the self-generated electricity stored in the vehicle battery.

It is already possible today to charge the car precisely when there is a lot of renewable energy available. For example, wind turbines do not have to be switched off because there are no consumers. The electric cars can feed electricity that they do not need into the customer’s home grid (vehicle-to-home) and in future also provide power to stabilize the electricity grid.

This makes Volkswagen one of the first providers of a bidirectional charging solution based on the CCS (Combined Charging System) DC charging standard, which is widely used in Europe. Bidirectional charging is based on ISO standard 15118-2, which describes the communication between electric vehicles and wallboxes.

The bidirectional charging function in the ID. models in combination with the DC charging technology is a dynamic extension of the home storage system. This takes over the main energy supply for the house. The vehicle is activated by the home power station when the home storage system requires additional energy. As soon as the home storage system is recharged, the vehicle stops transferring energy and goes into standby mode. This means that the ID. is only activated when additional energy is required.

The high-voltage battery cannot be discharged below 20% state of charge to ensure readiness for mobility.

In the first version, the relevant ID. models are only compatible with the DC home power station of the S10 E COMPACT series from HagerEnergy GmbH. Other home power stations are to be enabled for operation with a bidirectional charging station (wallbox) at a later date.