Mercedes-Benz and The Mobility House, a provider of smart charging solutions, have announced a Europe-wide cooperation for advanced Vehicle-Grid-Integration (VGI) solutions. Together, the companies will pair their experiences in electromobility and charging technologies to connect Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles with the energy system.
The partnership will focus on smart charging offers for private households, providing both unidirectional (Vehicle-1-Grid/V1G) and bidirectional (Vehicle-2-Grid/V2G) solutions. V1G involves charging the vehicle intelligently and as cost-effectively as possible, while V2G allows EVs to feed electricity back into the grid, achieving higher revenues for customers through energy and grid services and integrating more renewable energy into the power grid.
In carrying out the partnership, The Mobility House will bring its core competencies in the integration, aggregation, and marketing of EV batteries in energy markets. Mercedes-Benz will likewise leverage its technological experiences to offer customers a comprehensive, end-to-end, solution seamlessly integrated into its charging ecosystem. Together, the companies are ultimately aiming to promote sustainable mobility, particularly smart home charging solutions designed to help customers charge with renewable energy at home, reducing their carbon footprint.
Mercedes-Benz, itself, will gradually introduce smart charging offers with its new generation of EVs. In an initial development stage, charging processes using a home wall box will be intelligently controlled so that charging with green electricity can occur at the best possible time so that customers can save on electricity costs. This intelligent system charges the vehicle in all weather conditions, and thus particularly large amounts of renewable electricity are available in the energy grid, reducing electricity prices.
A central focus of the partnership is the development of infrastructure for bidirectional charging, enabling EVs to recharge while also feeding electricity back into the grid. Here, the vehicle can also act as an energy storage unit and become an integral part of the smart home system for private households as well as the entire energy grid. Bidirectional charging offers customers higher savings potential, with energy stored in EV batteries able to be traded on the market through V2G technology, reducing electricity costs by purchasing excess energy cheaply during peak times and feeding it back into the grid with financial advantage during increased energy demand.
With its joint smart charging offering, Mercedes-Benz and The Mobility House are working to align two essential factors for a successful energy transition. By reducing electricity costs when charging with renewable energy, they envision customers actively contributing to this transformation. Additionally, they see energy operators optimizing green electricity distribution by using generated wind and solar power for charging EVs based on load.
This latest collaboration between the partnership follows prior partnerships focused on the field of stationary energy storage units, which have been ongoing since 2016. As part of the joint venture Enbase Power GmbH, they jointly brought a large second-life battery storage unit online and are still operating it today.
