Dutch firm to debut bidirectional EV charging demo at global event

Dutch mobility scale-up We Drive Solar will debut its large-scale live demonstration of bidirectional electric vehicle (EV) charging at the upcoming EVS38 symposium in Gothenburg.

The system - already in use in the Netherlands - enables electric cars to both draw "energy from - and supply energy back - to the grid and will be seen by delegates to the event, which takes place in Sweden's second city from 15 to 18 June. 

"We are coming to Gothenburg to show a new premiere we are doing in the Netherlands," CEO and founder Robin Berg told CGTN Europe. 

"We will come with a fleet of Renault 5's to Gothenburg from Utrecht and we will demonstrate on stage actual bidirectional charging in real life as we're doing now with the first 50 cars in Utrecht."

EVs as grid-balancing batteries

Unlike traditional EVs, these shared Renault vehicles - operated in partnership with car-sharing platform MyWheels - don't just charge. They act as mobile batteries using standard public AC chargers already installed across Dutch cities.

"These cars are shared vehicles, they are all over the city," said Berg. "We are starting with 50, but MyWheels will grow this fleet in Utrecht to at least 400 bidirectional chargers, and then also in other cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam."

He added: "All those batteries, all those cars will act as a grid-balancing surface when they're not being used for driving. So you should see it as a large virtual power plant providing grid services, providing storage for renewable energy."

The Netherlands, he pointed out, is currently a global leader in solar panel adoption and is under pressure to resolve severe grid congestion. "This really relieves the grid and really helps going forward to renewable energy systems," he explained.

Long time coming, now ready to scale

Berg said the technology has been a decade in the making. "We have been busy developing the technology, getting the standards ready with the market, working closely together with OEMs, like Renault, to get it ready for the market."

He said that thanks to regulatory alignment, industry partnerships, and technological maturity the project is "really scalable to any city in Europe as of today."

"You need partnerships to do this. It's not just buying a car and buying a charger. It's also the grid integration, it's also having the protocols in place," he explained. "You cannot do it alone, you have to work together."

"Not a Dutch party"

The latest report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) indicates that capital flows to the energy sector are set to rise in 2025 to $3.3 trillion, which saw a 2 percent rise in real terms from last year, despite escalated geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty.

It's estimated that $2.2 trillion will be channeled to renewables, nuclear, grids, storage, low-emissions fuels, efficiency and electrification - twice as much as the investment going to traditional fossil fuels.

"This is not a Dutch party," said Berg. "Germany, Spain, Italy. All these countries are moving towards renewable energy at a massive scale. China, the US, Australia, Indonesia - I mean, this is happening in every country."

But there are still barriers. "The current difficulty is the availability of cars that support this technology and of course the grid regulations that are not in place yet in all countries."

Still, Berg believes the economic case is clear: "This will be a multi-billion euro market, definitely. The battery's already there, the battery's already paid for, and you just created an extra business case on top of it."