The Volkswagen Group has announced a package of charging-related initiatives under the brand name We Charge, which will include new charging solutions for home and mobile charging, new functions in the ID. Models and, “soon,” bidirectional charging.

“Charging must become simpler and easier to integrate into daily activities,” says e-mobility marketing head Silke Bagschik. “With the new software in our ID. Models along with solutions like Plug & Charge, we are making a decisive contribution to realizing such goals.”

In 2022, Volkswagen’s ID. models will add support for Plug & Charge, which is based on the ISO 15118 standard, and allows a vehicle to start charging as soon as it is plugged in, with no need for an app or RFID Card. In 2022, Plug & Charge will be supported by several large European charging networks, including Ionity, Aral, bp, Enel, EON, Iberdrola and eviny.

In addition to making things easier for the consumer, Plug & Charge is an enabling technology for bidirectional charging, “a ground-breaking technology about to be launched at Volkswagen.” As VW explains, “Electric cars can feed electricity they don’t need into the customer’s home network (vehicle-to-home), and in the future they will also provide electricity to stabilize the electricity grid. All ID. models with a 77 kWh battery will have this capability in future. An over-the-air update rolled out gradually will be used to make this available for vehicles already delivered as well. A special DC BiDi wallbox will be used for the power transfer and communication.”

“We want to make it possible for the batteries in our electric vehicles to be used on the energy market as flexible, mobile energy storage units. This can make charging significantly cheaper for customers, [who] will then be able to feed their own power into the public grid,” says Elke Temme, Head of the Charging and Energy business area at Volkswagen Group Components.

Another new feature in the pipeline: a software update that will increase charging speed for ID. Models. “The maximum power rating for the 77 kWh battery will increase from 125 to 135 kW (or 150 kW for the ID.5 GTX). This will cut the charging time by up to 9 minutes when charging from 5 to 80 percent SOC (state of charge). These improvements will be activated in already delivered customer vehicles by means of a software update in the near future.”

“The goal is complete electrification of the new vehicle fleet,” says Volkswagen. “By 2030, it is planned that at least 70 percent of Volkswagen’s sales in Europe will come from fully electric vehicles, which is equivalent to significantly more than one million vehicles. In North America and China, the goal is that electric vehicles will account for at least 50 percent of unit sales. To achieve these goals, Volkswagen will launch at least one electric vehicle onto the market every year.”

Source: Volkswagen