PT1 Live: Vehicles as Infrastructure – Batteries on Wheels

The cheapest electric car of the future may cost nothing at all. At the budget end of the market, Claire Miller expects offers that say "this car will be free forever. All you have to do is just drive however you like, but always plug in." Drivers would trade the money their battery can earn from the grid for a cheaper car, or no bill at all. Claire, who ran a national vehicle-to-grid (V2G) pilot in the UK and advises two PT1 portfolio companies, told Bryony Cooper of PT1 Ventures that the technology is close to the showroom. How much of the value will reach drivers is still an open question.

The money is already there. Grids must balance supply and demand, and markets pay for help. In the UK, Claire said, a driver who lets an aggregator control when the car charges can earn £300–400 a year from smart charging alone. Most drivers know neither fact. When the idea lands, people ask why it is not happening already. "Once they get it, then they really want it."

The cars are coming. The Renault 5 in France and the Ford Explorer in Germany already offer V2G services, and many cars on the road carry the technology without it being switched on for customers. Asked how soon a buyer of a new EV would be offered such services, Claire said weeks to months, depending on the model. Carmakers want the income, since EVs need little of the oil, filters and maintenance their business was built on.

Utrecht shows how a pilot becomes a product. The Dutch city aimed to be the world's first bidirectional city and won Horizon Europe innovation funding for a consortium of the local government, local innovators and grid operators. The Dutch grid is badly congested, so cars that charge and discharge on command help operators stay within its limits without building more cables, transformers and substations. Utrecht has just added 500 Renault 5s to a car-share fleet. When nobody is driving them, they balance the grid. The model is spreading to other Dutch cities, and the carmakers involved are bringing the features to market.

this car will be free forever. All you have to do is just drive however you like, but always plug in.

A car still has a day job. Fleet pilots have failed where the appetite for V2G came before the vehicle's duty cycle, because an ambulance or a freight vehicle cannot sit plugged in when the plan says so. Bin lorries are the opposite. They work predictable shifts, often overnight, carry batteries bigger than the job needs, and are often parked with charge to spare at teatime, just when the grid is short of power. They can also charge flexibly over many hours, which helps where solar floods the grid.

Standards are one obstacle. There is still no routine way to test and certify a car as a battery connected to the grid, so makers borrow standards written for stationary batteries or solar, and each market does it differently. A myth is another. The fear Claire hears most, even inside the EV industry, is that V2G wears out the battery. Early data suggest that at domestic power levels it conditions the battery and slows the growth of dendrites. Vehicle regulations already set how long EV batteries must last, and warranties run for around eight years.

The first offers will come inside closed ecosystems, one carmaker with one charger, and any car working with any home charger is five years or more away. An audience member who used to work in EV smart charging suggested the cheaper, ad-supported Kindle as a model. Claire agreed, as one option among several. Early adopters will want full control of their battery. Many offers will sit in the middle, such as 10,000 miles a year at no cost in exchange for the charging and V2G revenue. At the bottom will be the free car. What Claire could not say is how big the reward must be before a driver stops shrugging and signs up. The next one to three years of offers will show who makes money, and whether customers are cut in.

Recorded live at The Drop 2026 for PT1 Live, hosted by Bryony Cooper, with Claire Miller.