Credit: Renault
H/T Tallbloke
Where do we start with the issues this raises? Availability of the car for use by the owner/driver is an obvious one, fire hazards another. Inadequacy and weather-dependency of the future electricity grid is implied.
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A revolutionary charger for electric car batteries has been designed by Renault, which claims it is 30% more efficient than existing ones and allows energy to be put back into the grid at peak demand times, says Connexion France.
The bi-directional charger will be introduced to the company’s electric vehicles over the next decade, with the new electric R5 probably being the first model to be fitted with it.
Uses new materials to make it quicker
It has been developed in conjunction with French state-owned research body the Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives with new electronic power converter architecture that took three years to develop and is protected by 11 patents.
Using new materials, it will be smaller than existing chargers and the 30% efficiency improvement will allow cars to be charged quicker and improve the lifespan of batteries.
In practical terms, it means a vehicle such as the Mégane E-Tech Electric would go from taking six-and-a-quarter hours to charge from a 7kW wall box fitted in a home garage to just over four hours.
Boost to electricity grids on cloudy days
At the moment, bi-directional connections to the grid from cars are still banned in France but the government has made changing the regulations to allow them one of its priorities.
The bi-directional facility will be particularly useful as the move towards renewable energy sources gathers pace, giving a boost to electricity grids on cloudy and windless days when power production will be low.
Energy taken at off-peak times, for example, could be stored in the car battery and then taken back into the grid at peak and more expensive energy times.
Changes to the materials used in the charger mean it will cost less than existing ones, Renault claims, although it did not specify by how much.
Maximum charging capacity will be 22kW using three-phase power.
Full article here.
Tallbloke's Talkshop 
Huh, remember OHMS ? ‘return to sender’ comes first to mind. so what am I reading about?.. thought this was the general idea about having cars to do this. So, reading on.. ‘claims it is 30% more efficient than existing ones and allows energy to be put back into the grid at peak demand times’ eh? thought all this was just soooh efficient already aka anyway ? Hmm, no? so if there is so much scope for improvemnt or, dare I, I mean , really D A R E I ask this, how much power LOSS are we then ALREADY experiencing from this activity.. and who pays? and what is the nature of the Loss / Efficiency ? and what does that do to the planet ( a hint).
However, that is in La France, with their NUclear Plants, n’est pas ? and a good set of Frogs’ legs for conduction. But in UK, World’s leader (Capital) in Wind Power according to SNP, etc., where our Consumption is LESS than the total Land Based WindPower in Germany, and today as I write, Gridwatch tells me only 34 GW demand with wind only producing 4GW, and how much is being consumed to keep the Metal Herons warm and available? – passed a few shivering on the mountainside today: Rural Invernesss shire on a Mission this morning before the supposed Snow( still blue skies but very very cold) Yes shivering – the blades( Beaks ! ) moving verrry slowly to to show they were still connected. Poor Lonesome beasts condemned by the Green Blob to a 25 year sentence of standing guard, early release maybe in a storm of corrosion of the skeleton, maybe or sudden death ( syndrome) of the many 600’s of workers empoloyed equivalenty for each one.
I digress ( again) but such is the nature of the illness, If GB Manufacturing was back to its original strength and wellbeing – making tanks for Putin, etc. what hope would the herons have of providing FISH power on a d emand much greater than the gebneral high average of 45 ( Maybe as much, and certainly need more than, 50GW). So using the car with the Blat Fattery, home to recharge but asked to provide more power, how does all this work ? and when the power comes back on again, who will be first in the queue to be fed? the rest I will leave to the reader’s fertile imagination, or not.
A perfect way to regulate EV owners usage. Tip, don’t recharge when it isn’t windy or sunny enough.
Rechargeable batteries lifespan becomes shorter, regardless of type, when recharging fast. The battery will also become warmer than usual during the fast charging process. With Lithium-ion, that could quickly turn into a not so pleasant situation. To avoid the issue, the charging has to be slowed down when warm enough, taking longer time …
“smaller than existing chargers and the 30% efficiency improvement” means much higher charger cost. 30% more efficient than what? Slice and dice the data is what’s happening here.
I would definitely install a cutout ahead of the charger to prevent the utility sapping my car batteries of their charge. Feeding power back into the grid shortens the car’s travel life, and this increase in charge/discharge cycling certainly does not extend battery life. I’m quite familiar with the charger that monitors battery temperature to regulate charging activity. This is not easily done with EV battery banks, especially if they’re still using the common small cell to make up the banks. Lithium is too finicky to handle fast charge/discharge, and controllers to do so are expensive and not so efficient.
How many UK domestic properties have three phase supplies?
This is a stupid idea for two reasons.
1) It can only be used by if those with EVs have off street parking.
2) the EV owner could find that the car he thought was charging overnight now has a flat battery because the grid needed more power and it took it from his car battery.
Not a good way to try and sell the range limited electric car.