Vehicle to Grid (V2G) and Vehicle to Home (V2H) are two technologies popular in the field of electric vehicles. Vehicle to Vehicle charging of electric cars opens the door for charging an electric car from another one. Does it seem interesting?
EV Charging – Blog series
This is the fourth part of EV Charging blog series. Please navigate to other parts here
- EV Charging stations
- Vehicle to Grid (V2G) and Vehicle to Home (V2H)
- Impact of EVs on power grid
- Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) charging
- Solar Charging of Electric Vehicles
An electric car with a bidirectional charger is capable of supplying power to the grid and accepting from the grid. AC-DC converter could be used for grid connection at charging stations. We have discussed V2G and V2H concepts, how they affect the power utility grid in previous posts.
Here the V2V charging comes!
Vehicle to Vehicle charging
An electric vehicle with bidirectional charging facility might be used to charge another electric vehicle. Battery electric cars and plug-in hybrid electric cars plugged into a power socket to get charged.
An electric car can act as an emergency charging station
If a car is solar powered (I would write about them soon) then it can charge another EV accepting remuneration.
As far as electric cars are concerned they can serve electric loads in emergency situations. For example, a 60kW battery can uninterruptedly power a household electric load of 1kW for 60 hours!
Vehicle to Home connection minimizes the high cost of electricity at peak hours.
Types of Vehicle to Vehicle Charging
An electric vehicle charges from another electric vehicle in two ways. Isolated mode and power-sharing at charging stations. What are the differences?
#1 Isolated mode of charging
An electric car can directly connect to another in an isolated mode. Energy from one battery transfers to other vehicle battery according to the setting in the vehicle.
The pre-set quantity of energy flows from one battery to another vehicle battery when they are connected for power-sharing.
For example, a vehicle with a 50kWh charge in battery decides to share 10kWh to another car. If it travels 4 km for 1kWh then the vehicle could cover 40km.
#2 Power sharing at charging stations
An electric car can be connected to the charging stations and allow another vehicle to charge from the car itself instead of drawing energy from the power grid.
Here vehicles are not directly connected to each other. And both of them are connected to the charging stations.
The optimal power-sharing algorithm in charging stations take energy from one vehicle to others without disturbing grid.
Who does Electric V2V charging?
Does anyone do V2V charging? It’s inconvenient that drivers of both vehicles wait for the car get charged. Yeah.. It can be done in an emergency.
- A solar-powered electric vehicle that parked near any confluence where electric cars need a charge
- At parking areas where other cars need power
- At charging stations during peak hours of energy demand – a fully charged vehicle reduces power demand from the grid and make owner earn for shared power
- Private charging stations to share power with other electric vehicles
Hyundai introduces V2V charging for Kona Electric Vehicle
Hyundai electric has launched the V2V charging facility on their electric vehicles. The concept is as follows.
In case of any requirement to charge an electric car somewhere there is no electric car charging stations available, the company sends another car to charge the car.
Hyundai provides the service in some selected cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Bengaluru.
They had a collaboration with Allianz Worldwide Partners to enable the facility in the cities.
Conclusion
Vehicle to vehicle charging is a concept that accepted and being implemented by a few manufacturers. Bidirectional charging and a common standard of charging stations will make V2V a success.
Next post : Solar charging of Electric Vehicles
