Volkswagen is aiming to end the need to fiddle around in your wallet for a credit or charging card whenever you plug into a public charging point through a new automatic ‘Plug and Charge’ scheme.
Any drivers of Volkswagen’s ID models who use the firm’s We Charge scheme will soon be able to use more than 270,000 charging points across Europe on the Ionity, Aral, BP and Eon automatically simply by connecting the charger.
The software in the ID car will use encrypted communication (which meets ISO 15118 standards, for all you International Organisation for Standardisation code fans), to authenticate your account and automatically begin charging. Billing will then be done as usual through the We Charge app.
It’s all part of a number of free over-the-air software updates Volkswagen is issuing to ID models in a bid to make charging even easier and simpler.
The other big addition that will be rolled out next year is intelligent bidirectional charging – otherwise known as vehicle-to-grid charging. The system enables the electricity grid to borrow electricity from a vehicle plugged in through a special connection at peak times - with the owners then paid for that energy. Vehicles can then be charged at off-peak times when there is excess energy, likely at lower cost, which means owners could actually profit from such schemes.
Volkswagen says that bidirectional charging can have a huge impact on sustainability, by helping store energy when the grid is near-capacity. That is particularly important with renewable energy such as wind power, which is often generated when demand is low. As an example, Volkswagen says that in 2019 6500 gigawatt hours of renewable energy in Germany went unused because it could not be stored. That was enough to power 2.7 million electric cars for a year.
The bidirectional charging function will be offered as a free update to all Volkswagen ID models with the largest 77kWh battery – and will also be rolled out to other Volkswagen Group models that use the same MEB platform, such as the Audi Q4 e-tron and Skoda Enyaq.
While the software update will be free, to use the scheme owners will need to buy a special Home Energy Management System with a DC BiDi callbox.
In another boost, Volkswagen will increase the maximum charging speeds for ID models fitted with the largest 77kWh battery from 125 to 135kW, enough to cut the time taken charge from five to 80 per cent by up to nine minutes.
The 77kWh versions of the forthcoming ID 5 GTX will be able to charge at speeds of up to 150kW, because that model uses a different performance-focused battery.
Volkswagen’s focus on charging services and speed is designed to help it reach its goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2050 at the latest.
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