At the Investor Day conference on March 1, 2023, Elon Musk’s teams announced the imminent arrival of two-way charging on Tesla electric vehicles. But the boss of the company does not really believe in the usefulness of this feature. We explain to you why he is wrong.
The Investor Day conference on March 1, 2023 was highly anticipated. Tesla had to make big announcements, including the third part of the Master Plan. We thought we would talk about the Model 2 and the restyled Model 3, but no such luck.
Instead, Elon Musk’s teams have spent a lot of time detailing the technologies that will help save humanity. On the agenda: the goal of completely eliminating fossil fuels and halving energy consumption worldwide. To do this, several directions have been announced, including the transition to 100% electric vehicles.
Tesla will have two-way charging
Discussing this topic during a Q&A session, Drew Baglino, Tesla Motor and Power Engineer, mentioned bidirectional charging. Bilateral charging, also known as V2L or V2G, allows for reverse charging. This includes using the energy contained in the battery of an electric vehicle to power a home or re-feeding energy into the electricity grid in the neighborhood.
Tesla Solar Roof and Powerwall
Drew Baglino clarified that bidirectional charging is currently not a priority for Tesla. However, he added that his teams were able to find a way to reduce the cost of the car’s internal charger by equipping it with this feature. He even indicated that this functionality could be found in the brand’s cars within two years.
But Elon Musk doesn’t believe in it.
But, immediately after this speech, Elon Musk took the floor to clarify the words of the engineer. Tesla’s boss bluntly stated, “I don’t think many people will use two-way charging if they don’t have a Powerwall, because otherwise when you unplug your car, you turn off the electricity in your house.”
Elon Musk’s words are very strange. Is this a way to minimize the lack of this feature on the brand’s electric vehicles? It’s possible, although competitors are increasingly starting to offer this functionality, whether in V2L format in Kia, Hyundai, or even MG, to power smaller devices. Or directly in V2G format on a Volkswagen or Nissan to re-energize the local grid or power the house.
Two-way charging, indispensable in the future
It’s true that in the short term, two-way charging is not a must-have feature. But in the medium and long term it will. Bilateral charging would be very useful for decarbonizing vehicles and heating homes, a study recently claimed in the scientific journal Nature.
We have seen this in our special file after research by RTE, the French power grid operator. Two-way charging is one of the elements that ensures that the electrical grid does not jump when everyone plugs their electric car into a power outlet to recharge it in winter.
The bi-directional board will then be used to re-energize the electrical grid locally if needed. This feature is useful for more than just powering your computer for use in your car or powering your entire home. But actually go on the path to 100% electricity.
Tesla is not limited to two-way charging
It’s strange that Elon Musk doesn’t believe in this technology that much and reduces it to just functionality to power the home. Here he is right, referring to the Powerwall, which is a stationary battery connected to solar panels. This then allows the house to be supplied with energy derived from photovoltaic panels.
Thanks to all the Tesla customers who have solar roofs and Powerwalls, Tesla has even managed to create what is called a virtual power plant. And even become an electricity supplier in Texas. In response to the Tesla Electric name, the supplier plans to release an offer that allows cars to be charged indefinitely at night.
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