At the Investor Day conference on March 1, 2023, Elon Musk’s teams announced the upcoming arrival of two-way charging on Tesla electric cars. But the boss of the company does not really believe in the usefulness of this feature. We explain to you why he is wrong.
The Investor Day conference on March 1, 2023 has been long awaited. Tesla was to make big announcements, including part three of the Master Plan. We thought it would be about Model 2 and restyled Model 3, but that was not the case.
Instead, Elon Musk’s teams have spent a lot of time detailing the technologies that will help save humanity. On the agenda: the objective of completely dispensing with fossil fuels and of halving energy consumption worldwide. To achieve this, several avenues have been announced, including the transition to 100% electric cars.
Two-way charging will come to Tesla
When discussing this topic during the Q&A session, Drew Baglino, Tesla Motor and Power Engineer, referenced bi-directional charging. Also known as V2L or V2G, two-way charging allows you to do the reverse of charging. This involves using the energy contained in the battery of the electric car to power the house, or reinjecting the energy into the neighborhood electricity grid.
Drew Baglino clarified that two-way charging is currently not a priority for Tesla. While adding that his teams managed to find a way to reduce the cost of the cars internal charger while equipping it with this feature. He even indicated that this feature could be found in the brand’s cars within two years.
But Elon Musk doesn’t believe it
But, directly after this intervention, Elon Musk took the floor to qualify the words of the engineer. The Tesla boss was direct in announcing “ i don’t think many people will use bi-directional charging unless you have a powerwall because otherwise when you unplug your car you cut the power to your house“.
Elon Musk’s words are very strange. Is this a way to minimize the absence of this feature on the brand’s electric cars? It is possible, while the competition is increasingly starting to offer this functionality, whether in V2L format at Kia, Hyundai or even MG, to power small devices. Or downright in V2G format at Volkswagen or Nissan, to reinject electricity into the local network or power a house.
Two-way charging, indispensable for the future
It is true that in the short term, two-way charging is not a must-have feature. But in the medium and long term, it will become. Two-way charging will be very useful for decarbonizing transport and residential heating, as a study in the scientific journal recently claimed.Nature.
We had seen it in our dedicated file, following studies by RTE, the manager of the French electricity network. Two-way charging is one of the elements that will ensure that the electricity network does not jump when everyone plugs in their electric car to recharge it in winter.
The bidirectional charge will then be used to reinject energy into the electricity network, at the local level, if necessary. This feature isn’t just useful for powering a computer for work in the car or for powering an entire home. But indeed to take the road to 100% electric.
Tesla sees beyond two-way charging
It’s strange then that Elon Musk doesn’t believe in this technology that much and reduces it to just the functionality of powering a home. On this point, he is right to invoke the Powerwall, which is a stationary battery connected to solar panels. It then makes it possible to supply a house, thanks to the energy recovered by the photovoltaic panels.
Thanks to all the Tesla customers who have solar roofs and Powerwalls, Tesla has even managed to create what is called a virtual power plant. And even to become an electricity supplier in Texas. Responding to the name of Tesla Electric, the supplier plans to market an offer allowing unlimited car charging at night.
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