A five-partner project in Sweden aims to accelerate the development of vehicle-to-anything (V2X) technology, including vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and vehicle-to-home (V2H).

Supported by the Swedish Energy Agency, car brand Polestar is joined by Chalmers University of Technology, the Gothenburg energy grid supplier Göteborg Energi, charging provider Ctek and energy technology provider Ferroamp, in the study which spans two years and nine months.

“V2X will really revolutionise the future of power grids all over the world,” said Hans Pehrson, Polestar’s head of research and development. “I can imagine a world where thousands of electric vehicles, all plugged in to the grid, act as an important part of a fully renewable energy system. For example V2H could maximise the storage of local green energy and provide back-up capacity for peak periods. This is a step towards a world without the need for coal or nuclear power plants.”

Part of the project will see the construction of two V2X demonstration charging stations in Gothenburg – one at the Polestar headquarters and one on the Chalmers University campus.

V2X technology allows electric vehicles to act as power sources when they are plugged in to the grid. Having ideally charged an EV with green energy – wind or solar, for example – the vehicle can then supply its stored energy back to the grid, much like off-grid power technology that currently uses battery packs with relatively small capacities to store energy for later use.

“This is exciting for us,” said Pehrson. “We have been exploring this bidirectional technology for some time now and we want to bring it to life in our future products. It gives our R&D team great pleasure to be involved in this project with such fantastic future potential!”

Polestar is an independent Swedish premium electric performance car brand founded by Volvo Cars and Geely Holding. Established in 2017, Polestar has technological and engineering synergies with Volvo and benefits from economies of scale as a result. The company is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, and retails its vehicles in ten markets across Europe and North America, and in China.

Polestar produces two electric performance cars. The Polestar 1 is a low-volume electric performance hybrid GT with a carbon fibre body, 609hp, 1000Nm and an electric-only range of 124km. The Polestar 2 electric performance fastback is the company’s first fully electric, high volume car. Polestar 2 launched in 2020 with an all-wheel drive electric powertrain that produces 300kW and 660Nm, with a maximum range of 470km.

In the future, the Polestar 3 electric performance SUV will join the portfolio, as well as the Precept, a design study vehicle released in 2020 that is slated for future production. Precept showcases the brand’s future vision in terms of sustainability, digital technology and design.