Trials of new Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) bidirectional charging tech that enables EV drivers to power their homes and even sell energy back to the grid have started in the UK.

The project will help develop propositions that harness the full potential of V2X charging for customers

The new programme will help drivers unlock further potential from their vehicles and cut costs, while also helping to mitigate the energy impact of increased EV adoption.

According to Kaluza’s data, if all vehicles in the UK today were electric and V2X-enabled, they could displace 60% of all gas backup generation currently active in the UK.

It’s being run by the Inflexion consortium, launched by energy software platform Kaluza and also including Ovo Energy and Indra, and supported by funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

V2X technology enables drivers to power their home with their EV, leverage their vehicle as a backup power source during outages, and sell surplus energy back to the grid, helping to slash their energy and mobility costs while driving decarbonisation.

But it also has wider benefits, including energy suppliers and utilities manage the impacts of EV adoption at scale alongside increasing renewable generation.

The Inflexion project is said to mark the first real-world use of bi-directional charging using the Combined Charging System (CCS) technology – to enable compatibility with most modern EV models, including those from the Volkswagen Group. CCS connectors are used by many carmakers in the world, especially in Europe and the US.

It follows previous work on domestic vehicle-to-grid (V2G) solutions, which were powered by Kaluza’s software and Indra’s hardware and enabled drivers to earn around £420 a year – rising to £800 in some cases – for selling their EV’s energy back to the grid.

Inflexion will expand this by enabling drivers to power their homes – hence the V2X banner – and through CCS compatibility. It will also generate insights that will enable Kaluza and its partners to develop propositions that harness the full potential of V2X charging for customers, helping to lower the total cost of EV ownership and maximise the impact on grid balancing and decarbonisation.

The project is part of the V2X Innovation Programme, itself part of the up-to-£65m Flexibility Innovation Programme, funded from the £1bn BEIS Net Zero Innovation Portfolio.

The work supports the Electric Vehicle Smart Charging Action Plan, published this week by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and Ofgem and setting out steps to “seize on the significant potential of smart charging”. The V2X Innovation Programme will be used to tackle the barriers to wide-scale deployment of such technology.

Scott Neuman, CEO at Kaluza, commented: “V2X will have a transformative effect on decarbonising our energy system but only if we make it accessible and affordable for all. Inflexion is an exciting step for the industry to engage and learn from real EV drivers and bring this game-changing technology closer to true, commercial scale. Kaluza is ideally positioned to lead this work with our advanced software and extensive ecosystem of partners.”