Bidirectional charging reaches a critical inflection point in the EU
VW’s V2G launch could accelerate bidirectional charging in Europe as new regulations and market growth support wider adoption.
Volkswagen Group’s upcoming vehicle-to-grid (V2G) package, launching in Germany in late 2026 through its energy subsidiary Elli, marks a major turning point for bidirectional charging adoption in Europe. Unlike earlier pilot programs, the initiative is designed to scale vehicle-to-grid charging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles (EVs), enabling significant grid-support and energy-trading benefits.
VW’s strategy is to roll out the V2G package across VW-owned brands and in more EU markets, including France and the UK, as it secures technical and regulatory approvals. The German carmaker claims that EVs developed on its MEB platform are already bidirectional (BiDi) charging tech-enabled and that all MEB-based EVs operating in the EU alone can offer “a potential storage capacity of several dozen gigawatt hours (GWh).” According to VW, these MEB-based EVs are “technically ready for BiDi charging and therefore can enable gradual scaling across multiple brands, models, and markets.”
What is bidirectional charging?
Bidirectional charging allows electricity to flow both to and from an EV battery, rather than only from the grid to the vehicle. With vehicle-to-grid technology, EVs can return stored electricity to the power grid when needed, allowing them to function as distributed energy resources. When large numbers of EVs are connected and coordinated, they can help balance electricity supply and demand and support greater use of renewable energy. V2G is already available in Europe, but adoption remains limited and varies considerably by market. VW’s planned rollout could significantly expand that footprint by bringing V2G technology to scale.
How Volkswagen could scale bidirectional charging across the EU
The VW-Elli V2G package is expected to have a significant impact on the mass adoption of bidirectional charging. The package is the first offer that is sized, engineered and commercially structured to move V2G technology to many live, revenue-generating grid assets within a single national rollout, with a credible multi-country expansion path already identified.
Several factors could help the VW-Elli package accelerate V2G adoption across Europe:
Improved virtual power plant (VPP) economics
A virtual power plant is a network of distributed energy resources, such as EV batteries, that are digitally coordinated to operate like a single power source. Virtual power plant value—including energy arbitrage, grid balancing services and curtailment absorption—improves with pool size and predictability, making VPPs an important mechanism for EV grid integration. In practice, a large pool of capable EVs aggregated through a single operator with 24/7 EPEX Spot trading could provide Elli with greater flexibility to offer grid operators than any prior European V2G scheme.
Reduced barriers for consumers
As the EU’s largest car manufacturer, VW carries credibility that could reduce consumer hesitation and encourage wider adoption. Because the bidirectional charger, tariff and app are sold and supported as one VW-branded package rather than assembled by the consumer from third-party vendors, the transaction cost of adopting V2G technology drops substantially—a key consideration since consumer hesitancy (not battery chemistry) has been a recurring barrier in earlier programs.
Greater competitive pressure
VW-Elli’s V2G package could encourage rival carmakers, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Renault and Stellantis, among others, to accelerate their own V2G offerings. BMW/E.ON, Ford/Octopus Energy, Mercedes-Benz/Renault-The Mobility House and Hyundai-Kia/Vattenfall are already pursuing parallel offers. VW entering with the largest existing V2G-ready fleet pressures the rest of the market to match its pace of commercialization, accelerating aggregate V2G rollout across Europe faster than any single OEM program could deliver.
Potential savings for the European power system
Industry estimates cited around this launch suggest bidirectional charging could lower energy costs by up to €22 billion per year by 2040, primarily by reducing curtailment of renewables and deferring grid/storage investment. Those massive potential savings depend on V2G reaching fleet-level scale rather than remaining limited to pilot programs.
How EU policy is supporting bidirectional charging
The EU has not yet legislated V2G technology directly as a stand-alone mandate, but several related electric vehicle charging regulations are creating the conditions for wider adoption of vehicle-to-grid charging.
Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR, EU 2023/1804):
AFIR, part of the Fit for 55 package and in force since April 2024, is the anchor regulation. It mandates ISO 15118—the vehicle-to-charger communication standard that underpins Plug & Charge and BiDi energy flow—on all new publicly accessible charging points from January 2026 (ISO 15118-2), extending to ISO 15118-20 for new installations from 2027. ISO 15118 supports V2G by standardizing communication between EVs and charging equipment, including the messages and sequences needed for bidirectional power transfer. This interoperability is essential to scaling V2G across manufacturers and countries. Its mandated timeline aligns closely with VW/Elli’s own launch window.
Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD):
Links to the EPBD extend some AFIR-adjacent requirements to non-public charging infrastructure, including residential and workplace charging, which is where the large majority of V2G activity—including the VW/Elli home wallbox model—is expected to occur.
EU Network Code on Demand Response:
Proposed by ACER to the European Commission in 2025 and expected to reach national enforcement around 2027, the forthcoming code is intended to harmonize how demand-side flexibility assets—including bidirectional EV chargers—participate in grid services markets. This framework is most directly relevant to Elli’s business model of aggregating vehicles to provide grid services.
AFIR review:
AFIR’s scheduled review by the end of 2026 and every five years thereafter provides a near-term opportunity for industry associations such as Eurelectric to push for clearer legal definitions of bidirectional charging and smart charging, reducing the current ambiguity that has made cross-border V2G products harder to standardize.
Germany’s EnWG reform:
Germany’s EnWG reform, which entails removing double grid fees and simplifying metering via MiSpeL, among other areas, is the most V2G-enabling national implementation in the EU. This helps explain why Germany, rather than France or the UK, is VW/Elli’s first market.
Taken together, the European Commission’s overarching policy intent, reflected across AFIR, EPBD linkages and the upcoming Demand Response Network Code, is to push bidirectional charging from a niche capability toward a standard-issue grid asset.
However, the EU still lacks a harmonized V2G-specific support scheme comparable to Germany’s EnWG fix. Most member states have not yet resolved the double-fee and metering issues Germany just addressed.
VW–Elli’s expansion depends on national vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging regulations
VW/Elli will launch first in Germany, where the regulatory framework for V2G has developed more quickly than in other European markets. Expansion into France and the UK will depend on those markets reaching comparable regulatory maturity, including addressing grid-fee and metering fixes and completing the AFIR/ISO 15118 rollout on schedule. Ultimately, the pace of V2G scaling across Europe will depend not only on EU-wide policy, but also on how quickly individual countries implement the charging regulations needed to support it.
Summary of parameters that align VW's V2G offer with EU policy framework:
Outlook: VW/Elli could accelerate mainstream V2G adoption
Against this evolving regulatory backdrop, Mobility Global sees the scale of VW/Elli’s launch as a significant step toward broader V2G adoption in Europe.
Diana Quezada, senior research analyst for EV charging technologies at Mobility Global, says the combination of hundreds of thousands of V2G-ready vehicles with an integrated charging, tariff and energy-trading platform could help move bidirectional charging beyond niche demonstrations. “We see this as an important inflection point for Europe's V2G market and a potential catalyst for broader industry investment in bidirectional charging ecosystems,” she says.
Mobility Global forecasts electric cars equipped with V2G to grow with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.25% from 2025 to 2035. While Greater China is expected to continue being the largest market for battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) with V2G capability, we expect that Europe will see a rapid adoption of V2G-enabled BEV fleets from 2026 to 2027, leading to the region becoming the second-largest market globally in 2027.
The EU, which is expected to record a CAGR of about 37% in its V2G-enabled BEV fleet from 2025 to 2035, will continue to be the second-largest market after Greater China from 2027 to 2035. (See chart, above.)
The 2026 commercial launch of the VW-Elli V2G package in Germany represents an important step in that growth, moving bidirectional charging closer to the scale needed for broader adoption across Europe.
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