Volvo EX90 EV will be mobile power station

Volvo Cars wants its full-electric flagship to give power back to the grid, which should put money back into customers' bank accounts.

The EX90, which will be revealed Nov. 9, will be the first Volvo to be hardware-ready for bi-directional charging, the automaker said Wednesday.

Paired with smart-charging capabilities that will be added to Volvo's smartphone app, the EX90 will allow customers to charge their cars when demand from the grid and prices are low and to store that energy in the EV's battery to be used later.

Lutz Steigler, Volvo's senior manager for vehicle propulsion, told Automotive News Europe that savings of roughly 500 euros a year would be possible, based on variable power pricing schemes in Sweden from last year. This figure is based on vehicle-to-home charging, meaning the EX90 would be used to power a dishwasher, for instance, rather than using power from the utility provider.

The potential savings rise to 800 euros a year in locations where vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability is available, meaning that the EX90 would be credited from the utility provider for giving power back to the grid.

Steigler said both estimates on the potential saving were done prior to recent price increases for power throughout Europe.

Volvo's estimates resemble results from a 2021 study in the UK that involved Nissan, E.ON Drive and Imperial College London. The annual fleet V2G charging benefits was between 700 and 1,250 pounds ($785 to $1,400) per vehicle, according to a white paper from the trio.

Ideal timing

"The timing of this couldn't be any better for Volvo given that every second headline at the moment is about energy security," said Matthias Schmidt, who is chief European autos analyst and director of Berlin-based Schmidt Automotive Research.

"And energy prices are only going to explode this winter," Schmidt told ANE.

Volvo said it was still determining in which markets it will be able to offer bi-directional charging. There are a number of legislative hurdles that need to be overcome, but Steigler said that the feature should be available to EX90 owners "much earlier than 2025."

Bi-directional charging is not new.

Nissan has been running trials using the technology in the Leaf electric hatchback for years. The automaker has also found that bi-directional capability can provide savings, but many charger points are not able to accept electricity from an EV and deliver it to other appliances in a home or back to the grid, a Nissan spokesman said.

Other vehicles that are capable of bi-directional charging include the Volkswagen ID4 and ID5, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6 and Honda e. Tesla models currently do not offer the capability.

Volvo said it will also offer the hardware that customers need to make sure their home charging systems are bi-directional. It also will make sure accessories such as adapter plugs for appliances and cables for charging other cars are available.

"Our long-term intention is to reduce the number of charging cables a customer needs," Steigler said. Ideally he foresee a time when an EV owner will just need a Mode 3 charging cable and some adaptors, eliminating the need for Mode 2 cables, which are the standard emergency cables that are currently delivered with most battery-powered cars.

Volvo has been releasing details on the EX90 since Sept. 21, when it revealed the name of the car and highlighted some of its key safe features.

Last week Volvo said the EX90 will come standard with technology aimed at preventing hot car deaths.

The EX90 is the biggest all-new product debut for Volvo since the XC40 arrived in 2017.

Deliveries will start in early 2023 for Volvo's top-of-the-line EV, which will be sold alongside the mild- and plug-in-hybrid versions of the XC90, giving Volvo a pair of flagships as it transitions into an electric-only brand by 2030.

The rival to the Tesla Model X and BMW iX is expected to have a range of 500 to 600 km (310 to 370 miles).