Toronto, Ontario – BMW, Ford and Honda have recently sparked a new venture: ChargeScape, a joint company focused on optimizing electric vehicle grid services.
In an announcement made this past week by the three automakers, BMW, Ford and Honda have outlined their upcoming efforts to help manage energy usage across the United States and Canada.
The three automakers listed the goals of their jointly owned company, ChargeScape as: unlocking the full potential potential of EV tech, leveraging the Open Vehicle-Grid Integration Platform (OVGIP) and providing EV drivers financial benefits through EV-enabled grid services.
The three automakers through ChargeScape said that the platform will eliminate the need for individual integrations among each automotive brand and electric utility by creating a unified multi-branch service.
Customers of ChargeScape will have the option to share energy stored in their EV batteries with the electric grid at peak demand times through vehicle-to-grid applications.
“Electric grid reliability and sustainability are the foundation for an EV powered future,” Thomas Ruemenapp, vice president of engineering at BMW of North America, said in a statement. “ChargeScape aims to accelerate the expansion of smart charging and vehicle-to-everything solutions all over the country, while increasing customer benefits, supporting the stability of the grid and helping to maximize renewable energy usage.”
The platform will also leverage automakers’ telematics to provide managed charge scheduling through vehicle connectivity without requiring wifi enabled charging stations–a benefit for those who don’t use smart chargers.
ChargeScape’s operations are expected to be up and running by early 2024 following the success of pending approvals.
BMW, Ford and Honda said that they are also open to other automakers joining ChargeScape with the goal of supporting grid resiliency even further and unifying energy usage and ownership.
