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However, Wade Schaefer, GM’s vice president of energy, insists that the reason more people don’t use their cars to power their lives is down to “awareness, awareness, awareness.” To that end, the subsidiary announced at Tuesday’s event two partnerships with utilities: a “stress test” of two-way charging capabilities with 30 GM employees, enabled by DTE Energy in Michigan, and a plan to get 52,000 GM electric vehicles on PG&E’s main grid in Northern California by 2030. The automaker says it has forged dozens of partnerships with other utilities.
However, getting all of these GM vehicles connected and contributing to the grid will likely be a long and winding road. Not all states are excited about electric vehicles or new energy technology right now. And even in Early adopter countriesWhile lawmakers are busy with innovative climate and energy policies, vehicle-to-grid technology is still in its infancy.
It took researchers at UC Irvine several years of collaboration with Kia and Hyundai to get a car-to-home charging project up and running in six homes in Southern California. “Here we are now two years later — not four weeks later — and utilities across the country are just starting to address this,” says Scott Samuelsen, who directed the project and is a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UC Irvine. “It’s very new.” The project hopes to discover how an electric vehicle’s two-way charging capabilities can fit into the lives of ordinary people and, ultimately, save them money.
And in March, Puget Sound Energy in Washington state announced a pilot program that the utility hopes will teach it how to work with new types of companies — automakers and vehicle charging companies — while supporting the broader electric grid. The project is scheduled to continue early next year. One of the facility’s main tasks is ensuring that equipment from different automakers and shipping companies can communicate with each other, using the same types of standards. Clint Stewart, a senior product development manager at PSE, describes himself as a “technology optimist.” He believes two-way shipping is coming on scale. But not right away. “I’d like to believe that within five years, we’ll get to a point where it’s relatively figured out,” he says.
On GM’s to-do list: Making sure customers have full control over when their cars access the grid, so they’re not stranded with no charges when they need to unplug and get somewhere. Eventually, the system might learn the car owners’ schedule and know not to siphon off an electric car’s charge before the kids’ soccer practice, for example. There are some things to work out.
GM Energy’s Schaefer is eager to confront this moment. “We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how drivers interact with their cars and turn them into something more than just a means of transportation,” he says.
