From the EV back into the home and the grid.
Power flows in both directions.
With bidirectional charging, power flows in both directions between the EV and the home or grid. The vehicle does not only draw power, it can also feed it back. The EV thus becomes an energy storage for the house and the grid.
A distinction is made between bidirectional direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) charging. With bidirectional DC charging, the vehicle's battery is accessed directly. The inverter for charging and discharging sits inside the charger or charging station, which is why these solutions are expensive. With bidirectional AC charging, the charge and discharge electronics are built into the vehicle, and the charger only handles communication with the car.
ISO15118-20 as the foundation.
Technically, bidirectional charging requires the ISO15118-20 charging standard. It is currently being implemented and rolled out both for chargers and for EVs. The standard's extended security architecture, in particular with public-key infrastructure (PKI), digital certificates and certificate pools / root CAs, requires significant development effort and an external certification process.
On top of that, technical details such as grid-protection (NA-Schutz) for bidirectional AC charging are not yet fully defined. Beyond the technical roll-out of the charging infrastructure, additional factors such as the introduction of smart meters are required for a nationwide roll-out.
Prepared at the hardware level.
The legal and technical framework for bidirectional AC charging in Germany has not yet been fully settled. Once the groundwork is in place, we will deliver bidirectional charging via a software update, provided it is technically feasible.
We have, however, done everything we can to ensure that the WARP4 Charger Pro is equipped with the hardware needed to support this functionality in the future.