An increasing number of countries is allowing vehicles with Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology to participate in electricity markets. Meanwhile, any household can already use bidirectional charging to optimize their energy costs – especially when paired with solar panels.
But before you start monetizing your car battery, you need to understand the real economics. A vehicle battery isn't just a home battery on wheels – it's one of the most expensive components you'll ever own, and every charge cycle ages it. The surprising news? V2G can still make financial sense – if the battery chemistry is right.
When the Battery Holds You Back
Whether bidirectional charging (V2G or V2H) makes sense depends entirely on whether your battery will outlast the rest of your car. Take a typical EV with NMC battery chemistry – good for around 300,000 km. If you drive a lot, the battery becomes your limiting factor. Extra V2G cycles could force an early retirement or expensive replacement.
Here's the math: Replacing a Volkswagen MEB battery costs around €10,000. If those 500 extra V2G cycles are what pushed you over the edge, you've just paid €20 per cycle – or about 40 cents per kWh discharged. That's economically stupid.
Even if you extract every last bit of life from that replacement battery, you're still looking at about 13 cents per kWh in cycle costs. Those numbers might pencil out for maximizing solar self-consumption but not for electricity market arbitrage. Either way, you can tell Akkuplan your estimated costs - and it will make sure to deploy your battery only when there is a benefit to you.
When the Battery Outlives Everything Else
The story changes completely with batteries that will outlive the car – think low-mileage vehicles with robust LFP chemistry. These batteries routinely hit 3,000 to 5,000 cycles, translating to an eye-watering 900,000 to 1.5 million kilometers of total battery life at 300 km of range. Your car's chassis will rust out long before the battery dies.
Now those extra V2G or V2H cycles barely register as costs. The smart approach here isn't to track cost per cycle – it's to set a cycle budget. Spread 1,000 extra cycles over a 20-year vehicle life and you're looking at 50 V2G cycles per year with effectively zero marginal cost. Akkuplan handles this precisely: the optimization algorithm deploys those cycles only when they're genuinely profitable.
The Bottom Line
Stay skeptical of grand visions where millions of EV batteries stabilize the grid. Even with LFP chemistry, today's vehicle batteries simply aren't durable enough to become the backbone of grid regulation.
That said, there are real opportunities to save and even earn money – particularly with LFP-equipped vehicles. The key is getting your cost model right. That's where Akkuplan comes in: it models your specific battery economics and lets the optimization algorithm make the call on when using your EV battery actually pays off.