Volvo Cars Launches New Energy Solutions Business

Volvo Cars’ electric vehicles are an essential step towards a more sustainable society, but the cars and their batteries can do so much more than eliminate tailpipe emissions. For example, did you know that stationary electric vehicles have the potential to power your house or appliances or even return power to the energy grid?

To capitalise on that potential and help support the transition to a smarter, more sustainable and more efficient energy grid, the company is now launching Volvo Cars Energy Solutions. It’s an entirely new business unit that will offer energy storage and charging-related technologies and services which form the connective tissue between our cars, Volvo Cars’ customers’ lives, the efficient use of energy and society at large.

For example, bi-directional charging is a technology that allows an electric car to give back extra battery power to a compatible grid, helping to balance the grid during peak hours and reducing the need for fossil-generated electricity.

Volvo Cars’ new flagship, the fully electric EX90 SUV, will be the first Volvo car equipped with all the necessary hardware and (over time) software to enable bi-directional charging and direct energy storage from solar.

Together with Göteborg Energi Nät AB, the local grid company in our Swedish hometown of Gothenburg, we’re now launching one of the first vehicle-to-grid (V2G) pilot programmes that aims to test such V2G technologies on the local energy grid and in a home environment with real customers.

The pilot deliberately uses a low-cost AC wall box because it will help to accelerate the widespread adoption of the technology.

The pilot project not only aims to gain acceptance from a grid company and to demonstrate to other grid companies that V2G programmes can provide tangible benefits but also to create a testing arena for new technologies that are central to the future of Volvo Cars outside our labs.

“With bi-directional charging, you can use your car battery as an extra energy supply, for example, to provide power to your home, other electric devices or another electric Volvo car,” said Alexander Petrofski, the new head of Volvo Cars Energy Solutions. “The next step would be to enable this feature all around Sweden, and hopefully that will pave the way for even broader acceptance of similar charging and energy storage services around Europe.”

As Volvo Cars aims to be a fully electric car company by 2030, we’ll bring millions of electric Volvo cars on the roads in the coming years. The company’s engineers have calculated that the total battery capacity of that fleet will reach around 50 GWh by mid-decade.

While these cars will use several TWh in electricity each year, this energy consumption is flexible and can be moved quickly via smart charging.

At the same time, data from the Volvo fleet shows that the average daily drive in Europe uses less than 10 kWh, while 90 per cent of all daily drives use less than 20 kWh.

This means there is ample spare battery capacity left that can be used for other purposes, with the possibility of both financial benefits for the company’s customers and significant climate benefits.

This is where bi-directional charging comes into play: a technology that allows customers to repurpose energy stored in the battery of their electric Volvo at a later stage. V2G is one of those scenarios, as it allows for energy to be delivered back to the power grid from the battery of an electric car when the electricity demand is higher – against compensation.

“With the help of smart charging, you can charge your electric Volvo at the best available time from a sustainability and economy perspective,” said Alexander Petrofski. “Now imagine you could use that energy later, perhaps during peak times when prices are higher and the energy mix less sustainable. The idea of building an energy ecosystem around your car and the batteries is that it allows you to save money and reduce your CO₂ emissions. In contrast, energy firms benefit from reduced grid investments and a lower overall environmental impact.”

V2G is just one of the technologies Volvo Cars envisions as part of that ecosystem offered under the Volvo Cars Energy Solutions banner. The company is also looking at vehicle-to-home (V2H) products that allow you to send back energy to the client’s house and lower your energy bill, as well as vehicle-to-load (V2L) services whereby your electric car battery powers the client’s camping gear or charges your electric bicycle.

Over time, the company anticipates Volvo Cars Energy Solutions will generate significant new revenues from energy-related products and services every year, as well as new products not previously offered by Volvo Cars. In doing so, Energy Solutions is set to add value to our core business, customers’ daily lives and the environment.