August 18, 2026

Vehicle-to-grid systems depend on much more than a compatible electric vehicle and bidirectional charger. To operate as reliable grid resources, vehicles, charging equipment, charge-management platforms, aggregators, and utility systems must communicate and perform together across a complex chain of technologies and standards.

V2G News spoke with James Mater, Co-Founder and Director of Strategy, Smart Energy at QualityLogic, about the industry’s end-to-end interoperability challenge and a new initiative intended to begin addressing it. Mater also co-chairs the V2G Business, Policy & Technology Forum, which will host an end-to-end interoperability testbed and demonstration during its eighth gathering, scheduled for October 27–29, 2026, in Detroit.

QualityLogic has spent decades developing testing tools that help manufacturers, laboratories, and utilities verify compliance with communications and grid-interconnection standards. Mater believes the next challenge is to move beyond testing individual products or interfaces and demonstrate that independently developed, standards-based components can work together as a complete V2G system.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

August 18, 2026

A new national analysis from Energy and Environmental Economics (E3) finds that bidirectional charging could provide substantially greater grid value than one-way managed charging, particularly in regions facing capacity constraints, transmission and distribution needs, and periods of high electricity prices.

The March 2026 report, Vehicle-Grid Integration Valuation Studies, was produced by E3 and funded by GM Energy. The sponsorship is worth keeping in mind when interpreting the results, particularly because several modeling assumptions reflect GM vehicle characteristics. At the same time, the analysis uses E3's established modeling tools and examines VGI economics across multiple U.S. regions and utility rate structures rather than focusing solely on GM-specific programs.

The report's central conclusion is significant: V1G and V2G together could represent roughly $7 billion in annual U.S. grid value by 2030, with V2G providing five to 15 times more value per vehicle than V1G in many markets.

EDF-backed PowerFlex has acquired The Mobility House North America in a share-exchange transaction that will make The Mobility House a minority shareholder in the combined business. The deal brings together PowerFlex’s large-scale commercial fleet charging, solar, storage, and energy-management capabilities with The Mobility House North America’s experience serving transit agencies and school bus fleets through its ChargePilot platform. For PowerFlex, the acquisition is expected to accelerate deployment of vehicle-to-grid and vehicle-to-building capabilities, while giving The Mobility House’s North American customers access to broader project development, engineering, public charging, and distributed energy services. The transaction also reflects a broader consolidation underway in fleet electrification, with companies increasingly combining charging infrastructure, software, energy management, and bidirectional capabilities into integrated platforms as the market moves toward larger commercial deployments.

8/7/2026

Tellus Power has expanded its U.S. headquarters and manufacturing operations with a new 30,000-square-foot facility in Irvine, California, bringing engineering, assembly, testing, quality control, certification, warehousing, and customer support under one roof. The company says the facility is designed to support commercial-scale production of its bidirectional energy systems, which integrate EV charging, battery storage, and vehicle-to-grid capabilities, and can manufacture products compliant with Build America, Buy America requirements. The expansion is another sign that the V2G market is beginning to move beyond small demonstrations toward the infrastructure and production capacity needed for broader deployment. As automakers, utilities, fleets, and energy providers prepare for larger-scale V2X programs, suppliers are increasingly investing in the manufacturing, interoperability testing, certification, and support capabilities required to serve a commercial market.

8/4/2026

Tesla has enabled 2.4 kW vehicle-to-load (V2L) capability on newer Model Y Premium vehicles, allowing owners to draw 120-volt power from the vehicle through an $80 adapter paired with Tesla’s Gen 3 Mobile Connector. The capability is modest compared with V2L offerings from Hyundai, Kia, Ford and GM, and it does not yet extend to vehicle-to-home backup or vehicle-to-grid operation. Still, bringing bidirectional power to Tesla’s high-volume Model Y is another sign that energy export is becoming a more common EV feature. V2L is the simplest end of the V2X spectrum, but the hardware and consumer familiarity it creates can help establish a foundation for broader V2H and eventually V2G applications.

8/15/2026

The European Commission’s new Electrification Action Plan could significantly accelerate bidirectional charging by laying the groundwork for smart and bidirectional charging requirements for new electric cars and light commercial vehicles, with a concrete V2G mandate proposal expected by the end of 2027. The plan would incorporate bidirectional charging into EU vehicle type-approval rules, develop network codes that allow EVs to respond to grid signals, and enable member states to test V2G under simplified regulatory sandbox frameworks. It also proposes reforms to network charges so that V2G, storage, flexibility services, and other non-wire alternatives can compete more directly with traditional grid investment. Taken together, the measures signal a shift from treating V2G as an emerging demonstration technology toward embedding bidirectional capability into mainstream vehicle, grid, and market rules across Europe.

8/3/2026

Hanwha’s construction division will demonstrate vehicle-to-grid technology as part of a South Korean government-backed research initiative aimed at improving the energy efficiency and grid flexibility of AI data centers. The project, supported by the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and Korea Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning, will examine how AI-driven demand management, high-efficiency UPS systems, advanced cooling, and V2G can reduce data-center peak electricity use and improve operational efficiency. Hanwha plans to test V2G using its ceiling-mounted EV Air Station charging system, exploring whether EV batteries connected at data-center facilities could provide additional power through the charging infrastructure. While still an early-stage demonstration, the project is another example of V2G being evaluated alongside other distributed energy and demand-management technologies as large new loads such as AI data centers place increasing pressure on electricity systems.

8/12/2026

Humax EV Charging and Paua are partnering to integrate home, workplace, public and depot charging for UK fleets through a single platform built around Humax’s V2G-ready MX7 charger. The system uses ISO 15118 vehicle identification to automatically recognize compatible fleet vehicles and reimburse drivers for home charging based on actual energy use. While the initial focus is on simplifying fleet charging and reimbursement rather than bidirectional operation, the combination of vehicle-level identification, connected charging data and V2G-ready hardware helps establish the digital infrastructure that could support future managed and bidirectional fleet charging services.

8/13/2026