Green energy for new electric vehicles

Volkswagen drivers can already charge their electric and hybrid models with fully renewable energy thanks to Elli and IONITY. In the future, Volkswagen will go even further than this: The company supports investment for the expansion of renewable energy via additional European wind and solar farms. With these projects, Volkswagen aims to produce and feed into the grid as much green power as is needed to run the vehicles in the ID. family.

By 2025, the projects supported by Volkswagen will result in the additional generation of around seven terawatt hours of green electricity, which is equivalent to the capacity of more than 300 new wind turbines. When it comes to choosing which projects to support, Volkswagen is focusing on expanding resources in consumption hotspots within Europe. For this reason, it prioritises projects in EU regions in which Volkswagen sells a large number of electric vehicles. The projects will begin in 2022 with a solar farm in Germany in cooperation with the RWE energy company.

Zero-emissions mobility can only be achieved if both vehicles and energy are carbon neutral. Given these circumstances, the automotive and energy sectors are moving closer together.

For example, the Volkswagen Group and its partners from the energy sector will build around 18,000 public quick-charging stations in Europe by 2025 – five times as many stations as the current quick-charging network encompasses. Working together with BP, the company plans to install around 8,000 quick-charging stations with a charging capacity of 150 kW at 4,000 BP and ARAL filling stations across Europe. In Spain, it is aiming to launch an initiative with Iberdrola, primarily along the main transport routes. In Italy, Volkswagen is keen to work with Enel to expand the quick-charging network on motorways and in urban areas. In North America, Electrify America is planning to build around 3,500 quick-charging stations by the end of the year, while the joint venture CAMS will create around 17,000 quick-charging points in China by 2025. All quick-charging stations outside of China will provide green power exclusively.

Sometime in the near future, Volkswagen models based on the MEB will support bidirectional charging – this means that they will not only take energy from the grid but also feed power back into it. The energy transfer process and communication with the building take place over a digital Home-Energy-Management system (HEMS). As a result, Volkswagen customers will not only become less dependent on the public grid; they can also save on costs and CO₂.

Over the medium term, bidirectional charging could be used on a wider scale – for example, in residential blocks, businesses or the general power grid (vehicle-to-grid). Electric vehicles that take up and release electricity in an intelligent way not only contribute to the stability of the grid, but also become key players in the energy transition. In 2019 alone, 6,500 gigawatt hours of renewable energy went unused in Germany – enough to have powered 2.7 million electric cars for a year.