Automotive Engineering - February 2022 - 16

The bi-directional
bonus for
COVER STORY
EVs
A typical V2G power-flow arrangement.
long-term parking, they'll be paying you 50 bucks a day for access to
your battery for the week when you're gone. "
Others quickly joining
That was the vision at Nissan, one of the earliest players in the contemporary
EV market with its groundbreaking Leaf, introduced in
2010. As early as 2015, Nissan was engaged with demonstrations of
vehicle-to-grid bi-directional charging as a load- and cost-balancing
solution. In 2018, the company initiated a pilot program in which the
Leaf was grid-connected to help manage power at its headquarters
in Franklin, Tenn. and its design center in San Diego. A similar pilot
program, on a fleet scale, was in installed in Europe.
And in January, 2022, Volkswagen announced that all models in its
Advanced inverter is the heart of eLeapPower's Smart
Inverter System.
Motors for its ultra-premium Air sedan, said that in
addition to nearly all home chargers incorporating
bi-directional capability, the industry could evolve like
the mobile phone sector, with just a few manufacturers
taking the lead.
" If there's a company making a fantastic charger,
let's standardize on that one. And let other companies
also try to find some amazing ways to differentiate
their chargers, " he asserted. " Right now, if you can
offer bi-directional charging in your charger, like the
Lucid Connected will offer, that is one of the best
product differentiators I've ever heard of in my career. "
And powering the home is just one trick in bi-directional
charging's repertoire.
Londre forsees " many options in the future with
powering the house, with powering your neighborhood,
with powering the grid for everybody around.
" In the future, I anticipate there being a time when,
rather than paying 50 bucks at a garage, at airport
16 February 2022
new ID model range with 77-kWh battery packs will be built with bidirectional
charging capability - and over-the-air (OTA) software updating
will enable the function for " vehicles already delivered, as
well. " The company said a specific home charger will be required
and it was unclear whether or when the bi-directional charging capability
would be available in the North American market. Rivian CEO
RJ Scaringe also has said his company's premium electric vehicles
will at some point offer bi-directional charging. It seems inevitable
that more OEMs are soon follow to that point at which Qmerit's
Londre believes the feature effectively will be standard.
The onboard essentials
Although there are certain equipment requirements on the home side
of the charging cable, the necessary hardware to make an EV bi-directional-capable
is limited largely to equipment that already is required,
specifically the inverter. As demonstrated by Volkswagen's
intent to enable the function strictly through a software update, it
appears that in many situations, little about an inverter's silicon platform
need be altered to impart bi-directional charging functionality.
Moreover, inverters and other EV power electronics are rapidly evolving.
Electronic-components suppliers such as BorgWarner, Bosch,
Continental and ZF are turning to innovations such as silicon-carbide
(SiC) and gallium-nitride (GaN) power and field-effect transistors (FETs)
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
FROM LEFT: eLEAPPOWER; NISSAN
Automotive Engineering - February 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive Engineering - February 2022
