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| Collaboration to explore EVs augmenting electric grid |
Electric vehicles might provide more than everyday transportation. The U.S. Department of Energy believes the ever-growing number of EVs on the nation’s roads can be energy-storage devices that supply electricity — and resilience — throughout the country’s electrical grid.
The department took steps to hasten the arrival of such functionality, establishing a first-of-its-kind agreement between itself, national laboratories, state and local governments, utility companies, automakers and others to explore the feasibility of widespread bidirectional charging.
Eighteen participating organizations unveiled the collaboration, which aims to conduct demonstration projects and collect data, Wednesday at the Net Zero Plus Electrical Training Institute in metro Los Angeles. Among carmakers, Ford Motor Co., General Motors, BYD Motors Inc. and Lucid Motors signed the memorandum of understanding.
Starting in California, the group will evaluate the feasibility of widespread vehicle-to-grid, vehicle-to-building and vehicle-to-load capabilities — bundled together under the V2X abbreviation that has separately been used elsewhere in the transportation realm to define technologies that allow cars to share information with one another and infrastructure.
The partnership may allow fledgling technologies developed within the national labs to be commercially evaluated and deployed sooner, as well as implementation of improved cybersecurity for the grid. Similar projects may be rolled out in other states later.
— Pete Bigelow
What you need to know
E-range tops 1 billion miles in ’21: The cumulative electric-only range on vehicles sold worldwide in 2021 was more than 1 billion miles for the first time, according to consulting firm AlixPartners.
From algae to zinc, Toyota investments get greener: During the past two months, Toyota Ventures has invested in five startups from its $150 million Climate Fund.
Solar, wind power projects in the works for Mercedes’ factories: Mercedes-Benz will more than halve its carbon footprint per passenger vehicle by the next decade, sourcing 70 percent of its energy needs for production through renewable energy by 2030.
Roundup
Tesla’s conflicts with U.S. regulators come to a head as safety crackdown looms.
Software problem is responsible for a recall of more than 458,000 Toyota and Lexus vehicles.
Biden administration’s prospective $107 million loan for a graphite supplier might be first loan from Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program in more than a decade.
BMW on Tesla’s EV reign: ‘That’s over.’ BMW management now has a plan to sell EVs at the rate of one for every two sales by 2030.
Once a leader in EV batteries, AESC mounts a comeback with $2 billion overhaul.
Brain food
To hear the quiet sound of new EVs, Honda’s new tunnel brings on the wind, which can reach speeds of 190 mph.
Last mile
A California tech mogul running for U.S. Senate is targeting Tesla Inc.’s Full Self-Driving beta software as a key pillar in a nationwide ad campaign aimed at banning the automaker’s system from U.S. roads.