Four projects are today receiving a share of £4.8 million of government funding to develop technologies allow power to flow from electric vehicles (EVs) to buildings and to the electricity grid.
The innovation builds on existing smart charging technologies, where EVs can be charged when electricity prices are lower overnight. Domestic customers could use these technologies to sell the electricity back to the grid when prices are higher. Businesses could also benefit by storing electricity in their fleets of EVs and using it to power their operations at a later date.
These technologies will also help make it even easier to rely on renewable technologies such as solar panels, with less need for fossil fuels to provide for surges in demand by allowing stored renewable energy to be sold into the grid instead.
Transport Minister for Technology and Decarbonisation Anthony Browne said: “We’re continuing to support drivers, and this innovative new development is the next step in levelling-up our charging technology, which will benefit many households across the country.
“This government has already spent over £2 billion in the transition to electric vehicles and our charging network is growing at pace, with 44% more public chargepoints than this time last year, meaning drivers can charge more easily than before.”
The successful companies are:

Hangar19 Ltd in Chelmsford, with CrowdCharge, Electric Corby, FleetDrive, GridBeyond, Jaguar Land Rover and Oxfordshire County Council.
It won £1,026,051 to demonstrate a three-socket bidirectional charger, making a wider range of EVs available for energy flexibility and bidirectional charging. CrowdCharge’s optimisation tool will maximise the energy benefits on site including optimising energy between vehicles. GridBeyond’s open flexibility markets will be used to maximise value from grid services. Jaguar Land Rover will provide test vehicles to complement the Hyundai, Kia and MG EVs already proven as compatible. The diversity of trial sites provided by Drive Electric, Oxfordshire County Council and Electric Corby will enable testing of multiple use-cases and propositions for fleets and workplaces, and generate significant user feedback.
3ti Energy Hubs Ltd in Leatherhead, with CENEX, Gridbeyond and Turbo Power Systems.
It won £1,344,552 to combine a quick-to-deploy bidirectional charging hub with a solar canopy and battery, housed in recycled shipping containers, which can make access to bidirectional charging available in more destinations, including vehicle depots. The FastHub project focuses on integrating DC charge points, battery and solar to a common power bus, delivering 30 kW bidirectional charging, lower capital costs and lower operating costs using a high efficiency microgrid.
Otaski Energy Solutions Ltd in Gateshead, with Syselek and Leeds University.
It won £1,517,682 to trial a bidirectional EV charger to enable fleet EV operators to access energy in a flexible way which could deliver savings in line with electricity supply and demand surges. FLEXET will demonstrate V2X technology through multiple use cases to show the benefits of V2X and energy flexibility to reduce carbon footprint and improve energy efficiency, whilst addressing the limitations of smart charging for EV fleet operators. The consortium will also work with municipalities and asset managers to deliver smart and bi-directional charging on lampposts and other charging assets.
Electric Green Limited in London, with Qbots Energy and Royal Mail.
It won £959,071 for the V2Geasy project which will see it convert 20 delivery vehicles to bi-directionally charge and discharge wirelessly (inductively) and then conduct a comparison between wired and wireless bi-directional charging at Kingston’s Royal Mail depot. The wireless bi-directional solution will address depot space constraints, accessibility and safety concerns, whilst facilitating higher connection times and maximising monetisation for back to base fleets. QEnergy will analyse fleet duty cycles, vehicle battery and state of charge data mapped against grid capacity and flexibility market revenue potential, whilst Royal Mail drivers and fleet managers will add their feedback in order to investigate the practicalities of both systems.