Shown at the Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exhibition in Montreal, the system is designed to work with charging points and solar panels, providing an off-grid energy supply which can enable drivers to avoid peak costs and power outages.

The technology is similar to Nissan’s xStorage solution, which uses cells from the LEAF battery packs, but BMW’s can also utilise new cells in the years before there are used packs on the market.

Two capacities, 22kWh and 33kWh, will be available, catering for average daily household usage of between 15 and 30kWh in the United States. As the demands for home energy storage are less than in an EV, the unit significantly extends the useful life of a battery.

Cliff Fietzek, Manager Connected eMobility at BMW of North America, commented: “The remarkable advantage for BMW customers in using BMW i3 batteries as a plug and play storage application is the ability to tap into an alternative resource for residential and commercial backup power, thus using renewable energy much more efficiently, and enabling additional revenues from the energy market.”