Future BMW EVs Will Have Bi-Directional Charging Abilities

BMW Vision Neue Klasse X (left) and BMW Vision Neue Klasse (right) concepts. Production-bound version will boast bi-directional charging abilities, says BMW.

Following the debut of the new Vision Neue Klasse X concept EV SUV earlier this week, BMW has reportedly confirmed that the upcoming production version will see bi-directional charging feature primed as standard. The same applies to its Vision Neue Klasse concept sedan twin too.

In other words, the upcoming new-generation BMW iX3 SUV and its i3 sedan, arriving circa 2025 and 2026 respectively, can both charge the vehicle and serve as a power source for other devices. BMW categorizes this tech into three tasks: vehicle to home, vehicle to grid, and vehicle to load.

“Our customers can feed electrical energy stored in the vehicle back into their own house, electrical devices like your e-bike or the public power grid. This lowers electricity costs and helps stabilize networks.” says BMW CEO Oliver Zipse about the upcoming tech.

BMW envisions bi-directional charging to enable production-bound versions of the Neue Klasse to offer vehicle to home (V2H) and vehicle to grid (V2G) abilities on top of vehicle to load (V2L) function.

Aptly, vehicle to home (V2H) will allow EV owners to power their homes using their EVs, but BMW does note the requirement in purchasing a BMW DC Wallbox Professional to enable this. This is clearly ideal for EV owners who already have things like a home solar panel installed.

By having their EV connected to their home, it can be used to store energy generated throughout the day, and thus feed it back into the house at night. This cycle in turn promises to help lower overall electricity bills further too.

Vehicle to grid (V2G), on the other hand, sees BMW owners able to supply electricity back into their local power grid. Though BMW admits this particular ability will take time to implement as it requires participation of regulatory bodies, it does promise the greatest benefits for society.

Current crop of BMW EVs do not possess bi-directional capabilities yet.

As for vehicle to load (V2L), this is certainly something many current EV owners are familiar with. It works much like the V2H task mentioned earlier, albeit at a smaller scale. This just means owners can plug in and power any electric device or appliance using their EVs.

These aside, what’s interesting though is the fact that BMW didn’t not elaborate anything about Vehicle to Vehicle ability, which could see Neue Klasse EVs  provide energy to another Neue Klasse EV.  This availability’s development remains uncertain for the Neue Klasse at this point.

Beyond the iX3 and i3, BMW is set to launch at least four more models using the Neue Klasse concept’s underpinnings before 2028. This would in turn see EVs make for half of the Bavarian marque’s global annual sales.