PG&E gives $1000 to BMW owners, but no love for Tesla

Something tells me that some of the dollars are coming from BMW too.

Maybe they did i3 owners because ...

Utility: Hey i3 owner, can you please wait until 2am to charge?
i3 owner: sure, I only need a few hours to charge.

Utility: Hey Tesla owner can you please wait until 2am to charge?
Tesla owner: sorry, just got back from a road trip and I only have 40A charging. Er, want to pay the $3k and do the circuit upgrade?

And for the nth time, the "Holy Grail" is not V2G. Clue: the quote about V2G comes from someone at a university, and not someone at a car company or a utility. V2G is something to sell to naive politicians. Cheap batteries for cars also means cheap batteries for utilities, and PEVs' power draw will mean that their potential as a massive controllable demand sink will diminish the value of the additional complexity and uncertainty of V2G.

Besides, as the article says, car companies are looking to do someone with the end-of-automotive-life batteries. What could a utility do with a bunch of cheap, old batteries? They could _really_ simplify.

I'm with JB on this one. (As ever).

Maybe not V2G but it would be great to use EVs to soak up excess production during odd hours of the day (ie. grid storage). Utilities should incentivize this and send owners push notifications saying "only $0.03/kWh if you plug in now!".

Here is Texas...fast charging stations like NR EVGO is free to Nissan EV owners for 2 years

Nissan No Charge to Charge | Get 24 months complimentary charging from eVgo at local eVgo stations with a new Nissan LEAF

The "additional complexity and uncertainty" of V2G is the basis for Tesla Energy and wall mounted batteries. Why shouldn't I be able to use my huge car battery for this? If I could, maybe Tesla would get some love from PGE, or BGE, since I'm in Maryland. As near as I can tell, the problem is with free supercharging. I'd favor charging local rates at superchargers, for this if no other reason, but it also might help get other companies to build superchargers.

ThosEM said:

The "additional complexity and uncertainty" of V2G is the basis for Tesla Energy and wall mounted batteries. Why shouldn't I be able to use my huge car battery for this? If I could, maybe Tesla would get some love from PGE, or BGE, since I'm in Maryland. As near as I can tell, the problem is with free supercharging. I'd favor charging local rates at superchargers, for this if no other reason, but it also might help get other companies to build superchargers.

Click to expand...

Part of the issue, too, is the unlimited miles battery warranty. LiIon batteries wear out with cycling (and other factors), so using your car's battery in V2G reduces its lifetime in your car. Utilities aren't going to pay enough to make that range reduction worthwhile when used on a regular basis.

OTOH, I lose power a couple of times each year at my summer camp, and it sure would be nice to have the 85kWh in my car's battery available for those rare instances. Outages aren't frequent enough to justify buying a generator.

ItsNotAboutTheMoney said:

Maybe they did i3 owners because ...

Utility: Hey i3 owner, can you please wait until 2am to charge?
i3 owner: sure, I only need a few hours to charge.

Utility: Hey Tesla owner can you please wait until 2am to charge?
Tesla owner: sorry, just got back from a road trip and I only have 40A charging. Er, want to pay the $3k and do the circuit upgrade?.

Click to expand...

Starting charging at 11pm would benefit the utility as much as waiting until 2am. There are very few situations where a Tesla owner can't start charging at 11pm and have more than sufficient charge by the time he leaves home in the morning. Most people don't arrive home with a depleted battery most of the time.

PG&E Off Peak EV B rate is 11 PM to 7 AM M-F and 7 PM to 7 AM weekends and holidays. Its also not Tiered.

I see nothing about paying for a higher charge rate either so you can load up on the front side and slow it down before 7AM without penalty.

Electric Vehicles - Making Sense of the Rates | PG&E