The ability for cars and the grid to communicate is made possible by the latest connectivity options built into new vehicles. These can be summarized with several acronyms.
V2g — “Vehicle-to-grid” or “bidirectional” reverse charging allows a car to “share” back some of its charge with the electrical grid as needed.
V2i — “Vehicle-to-infrastructure” is how a car shares data with traffic infrastructure and vice versa. As a connected car approaches a traffic signal, if there’s no one else nearby, why should the signal remain red?
V2h — “Vehicle-to-home” is when an EV provides power to the home, in case of power failure or, as in the California case, a massive, prolonged heatwave.
V2v — “Vehicle-to-vehicle” allows cars to communicate with each other. If there’s a deer in the road ahead, the first car to encounter it can alert the next car, and the vehicle after that, too.
In this chapter, we’ll look at all these types of connectivity, and more.