Tesla will not be prioritising vehicle to grid technology, with the company’s CEO Elon Musk revealing that he believes the technology to be overhyped.
The revelation came at Tesla’s Battery Day event on September 22, where the company unveiled a host of efficiency improvements to the batteries it uses in its electric vehicles and energy storage products.
At the event, Musk was asked a question on whether Tesla has any plans to support vehicle to grid technology, which many in the electrical industry have heralded as the holy grail of grid balancing. Musk admitted that the technology could be activated right away in Europe as part of a software update, but cautioned that vehicle to grid has a “lower utility” than many people thought.
In fact, Tesla revealed that it had previously supported vehicle to grid with the original Roadster sports car. The CEO noted that despite supporting the technology, not a single person utilised it with their Roadster.
The reason behind Elon Musk’s opposition to vehicle to grid is because he feels that stationary energy storage plays a far more important role in keeping homes powered than a car. “People want the freedom to be able to drive, and charge at their house,” he noted.
“It will be problematic if you get to the morning, and instead of being charged, (the car) has discharged.
“It will be better to have a Powerwall and a car operating separately. Then everything works.”.
Homeowners become their own utilities
Instead of leveraging vehicle to grid, Tesla wants to promote homeowners becoming their own utilities through the mixed use of solar and energy storage. This could still provide grid balancing where necessary, but the thought is that the grid will see less demand thanks to people being able to generate and store their own electricity.
Of course this is an optimistic goal from Elon Musk, but the new battery innovations announced by Tesla should help pave the way to achieving it. That’s because the new battery technology should drastically reduce the cost of energy storage, while solar panel prices continue to fall while simultaneously getting more efficient.