Hive EV Charging and the future of charging technology

According to Hive, that translates to a maximum saving of £2.10 per full charge for the 30kWh battery of a small electric car and up to up to £4.20 saving for the 60kWh battery in a larger, longer-range family-friendly EV.

Subject to the results from the early trial, the SmartCharge Saver tariff could be available to Hive’s broader customer base as early as 2023. One thing is clear, smart charging is set to get even smarter, even more flexible and even more cost-effective as a result.

Vehicle-to-Grid: a bigger, broader, smarter network

Vehicle-to-grid technology (also known as V2G) may sound futuristically “Trekky”, but it’s actually a simple solution to a broader challenge that also presents an intriguing opportunity for saving even more money on home charging.

With electric vehicles already accounting for 16% of new car sales (and numbers expected to rise by 300% in the lead up to 2030), the challenge is that charging an ever-increasing number of EVs will ultimately impact electricity networks. The UK National Grid already publicises big spikes in power usage as people go to plug in their kettles whenever there’s a cliff-hanger on a soap or drama. Now imagine if you were to plug in every electric car on the road between 6pm and 7pm. 

Instead, why not use the fact that parked and plugged-in EVs are effectively on-demand batteries to rebalance the grid instead? Using V2G, EV owners can top-up at off-peak times when energy is cheapest and greenest. They can then store that energy in their cars. Finally – at peak times – they can either use the energy stored in the car’s battery to power their home or put it back into the grid to earn credits that save money on their bill.

That’s the theory. But how does V2G work in practice? Well, first you need a V2G-enabled electric car that can send charge back to a charger, as well as receiving it. Current models to feature this include the Nissan Leaf and updated Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid. Then, you need a bi-directional wall-mounted smart charger capable of sending power to your car’s battery and back to your home. Lastly, you need a three-phase connection installed in your home.

While V2G can help lighten the load on the grid, it can also help you make the most of low-cost renewable energy which can then be used in the home when energy prices and the carbon content of electricity are high. So, V2G has the potential to be good for both the pocket and the environment.

In a recent nationwide trial conducted by British Gas, Electric Nation Vehicle, Western Power Distribution (WPD) and CrowdCharge, a group of 100 participants successfully proved that V2G works on both a technical and cost-saving level, with participants seamlessly providing a nationwide battery resource which both stored green energy and fed electricity back into the grid, on demand, during peak times.

It's likely that V2G will start to become more widely available from 2025 as more manufacturers release V2G-compatible models, helping more people take the pioneering technology more mainstream.

Hive Honeycomb: an energy connection revolution

Looking even further into our electric future, Hive is readying an exciting series of trials for an all-new, all-encompassing energy product: Hive Honeycomb. Think of it as V2G+ for both homes and businesses, a virtual power plant helping you share energy – and lower your impact on the grid and the planet – on an even broader scale.

The largest virtual power plant in Europe is also the most sophisticated. Hive Honeycomb interconnects your EV charger, batteries, heat pumps, electric heaters and hot water tanks, helping you intelligently conserve and share energy without the extra steps.

Using sophisticated artificial intelligence, the platform automatically optimises your energy usage, unlocking new flexibility in how and when its used, generated and stored. As with V2G, your energy sources (such as home heating systems) become energy storage devices that conserve electricity during off-peak hours and energy distributors during peak times, selling spare electricity back to the grid.

The Hive Honeycomb platform is already optimising over six thousand home devices across the UK, Belgium, and the Netherlands, providing 24MW of Virtual Power Plant services to grid operators.