V2X Suisse project launches with V2G-ready Honda e cars

The previously announced V2X Suisse pilot project just got the go-ahead in Bern. Over one year, seven companies, including Honda, will investigate how shared electric cars may increase grid stability and close electricity gaps across Switzerland.

Announced in January 2022 with the September starting date, V2X Suisse has taken off on schedule.

Car-sharing company Mobility is in the lead and is providing 50 Honda E cars at 40 locations across Switzerland. The partners say this is the first test that includes stations in rural and urban areas. “Our Switzerland-wide fleet network is virtually predestined for this pilot project,” said Mobility CEO Roland Lötscher

Swiss EVTEC joins Honda and Mobility and has installed the bidirectional charging stations at said stations with software by Sun2Wheel. Tiko is an aggregator, and Novatlantis and ETH Zurich are acting as science partners.

In terms of technology, EVTEC has supplied DC wall boxes with 10 kW power, offered under Honda with a ‘PowerManager’ label. EVTEC also developed a new column with two CCS plugs at 10 kW for the project. If only one charging point is in use, an EV can bidirectionally charge there with up to 20 kW. “This increases V2X profitability if only one of the two Hondas is connected to the grid at the site,” explained V2X Suisse project manager Marco Piffaretti in an earlier interview with electrive.net.

The electric vehicles feed electricity from their batteries back into the grid when not in motion. However, the pilot project’s load is admittedly manageable since the battery of the Honda e is known to be relatively small at 35.5 kWh. Extrapolated to the entire car-sharing fleet, the EVs correspond to a connected load of 60 megawatts. That is more than the Peccia pumped-storage power plant in Ticino, explains Mobility.

Stull, the V2X Suisse partners, are committed to finding solutions, first on this smaller scale, for how a rapidly growing number of electric cars can be charged and clarify questions of consumption and grid stability before they lead to acute problems.

Piffaretti is convinced that the results from the one-year test operation will give V2X technology the boost it needs. “We get the much-needed experience to be able to master the technical and regulatory challenges around bidirectional charging.” If successful, V2X Suisse will stay in continuous operation.

presseportal.de (in German)