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Bidirectional charging starts to float down the mainstream in New Zealand; how hot water and EVs could turn cities into giant batteries; Nelson joins the smart 'n sunny club and puts some panels on public buildings; good news as China goes backwards; two new electric big rigs reach New Zealand; and a potential solution for Shotover Jet.
V for victory
Cars sit still for most of their life and the promise of V2X technology means they could be put to use to power homes and feed energy back into the grid from their big batteries. It’s been talked about for years and various trials have shown that it works, but it’s starting to float down the mainstream.
And when a car becomes energy infrastructure that can increase resilience, that changes a number of calculations.
Bidirectional chargers from Sigenergy (which is currently going gangbusters in Australia after the battery rebate) have been approved in New Zealand and the company released a video saying it has enabled V2X on its app. Beauden Barrett, who has one of the chargers in his house, will be pleased.
StarCharge, one of the world’s largest charger manufacturers, officially launched its Halo V2G bidirectional charger in Australia recently.
“The launch, held in Sydney, brought together representatives from utilities, government, automakers, energy retailers and project partners, signalling strong industry alignment on the role of electric vehicles in future grid planning.
We've been digging into this area recently and we have some good news to share soon. Basically, there are no barriers aside from manufacturers enabling the functionality, so keep an eye out for an update on how your electric car could start helping out around the home. and helping out the grid.
Worries, wheels and water
Being able to run your home off the car is not just good for homeowners, however. As this story in The Conversation suggests, EVs (and water heaters) are turning cities into giant batteries.
Authorities can use these devices to help operate the grid more efficiently and slash infrastructure costs. In fact, our new research shows that with the right coordination, cities can transform from energy consumers into flexible energy hubs able to store energy and release it as necessary. This would make it possible to avoid billions of dollars worth of grid upgrades.
There’s been plenty of research on battery life and, in general, it's coming out better than expected, with real world conditions changing things a bit. Fast charging appears to have little impact and the batteries are now expected to last longer than the car they’re propelling. A new study shows that bidirectional charging also has a limited impact.
“The additional charging and discharging cycles have a measurable effect, but it is rather small. TMH and RWTH Aachen do not go into the background reasons for this. It could therefore be due to the fact that V2G scenarios do not usually involve complete charging cycles, and that intelligent, controlled charging slows down ageing”.
Raise the roof
We’ve just launched our local elections campaign and we’re voting electric. Local governments have a really important role to play in the electrification space and we’ve laid out what they can do and what voters should be asking for.
One of the easiest options is to focus on their own assets and lead by example. We’ve seen a growing number of council buildings around the country embrace solar and Nelson, reliably one of the sunniest places in the country, is the latest to go down the cost- and emissions-reducing road. It has even brought forward funding from future years so they can do it now.
The $616,062 investment will see panels installed on Trafalgar Park Pavilion, Pūtangitangi Greenmeadows Centre, and the Tāhunanui Community Hub over the next 10 months.
This project is supported by a $330,000 grant from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) for the installation of batteries on these Council sites. The grant also includes funding for two community-owned sites, with the aim of increasing energy resilience across Nelson in the event of a Civil Defence emergency.
The buildings were chosen due to their use as community hubs in emergency response operations, something that's been all too frequent in the area we’re also seeing in marae around the country.
Going backwards - in a good way
At a slightly larger scale, some good news on the emissions front from China.
“For the first time, the growth in China’s clean power generation has caused the nation’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to fall despite rapid power demand growth. The new analysis for Carbon Brief shows that China’s emissions were down 1.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025 and by 1% in the latest 12 months.”
Other key findings were:
At a time when energy security has in some places become a euphemism for fossil fuels, China seems to see energy security as being able to produce its own electricity and it has massively increased its output. And when the factories are run on renewables, that will make electric machines even more of a slam dunk on climate.
Truck me
In ‘well, you’ll never be able to run that kind of thing with a battery’ news, eTrucks has brought another couple of big electric rigs to New Zealand and they’re cheaper to run than diesel equivalents.
We covered the arrival of the Windross electric semi a few months back and there are now two Deepway trucks in the country.
“With the recent confirmation of RUC exemption for heavy EVs until July 2027 our calculations show the Deepway as the cheapest semi tractor to operate in New Zealand, even after paying for your depot charger.”
They will sting you $255,000 (plus a few extras) but if they’re anything like light vehicles, the lifetime savings are significant, primarily because of the fuel savings.
We have been asked a lot of questions about what the new RUCs system will mean and we’ve crunched some numbers on that.
Check out eTrucks’ roundup of the BEV options and charging solutions that are being seen here and around the world, from massive electric loaders to big solar-covered warehouses.
Jet set
Shotover Jet has been working on its electric jetboat for a while now. Maybe they just need to buy a few of these and strap them together.
When Mike Casey bought his house near Cromwell, it came with gas bottles on the side of the home for water and an expensive diesel system for the underfloor heating. He replaced both of them with a Steibel Eltron system and it's been saving him money ever since. As technical manager Bhawesh Singh told him at the Electrify Queenstown conference, there has been a big influx in enquiries from homes looking to get off the molecules and onto electrons.
Read moreDownloadConfidence that cutting regulations to make solar power more accessible - won't jeopardise people's safety. A new Regulation Ministry reports laid out a potential blueprint to legalise plug-in solar and reduce the time and cost of panel installation. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey shares his thoughts with Andrew Dickens.
The burgeoning demand for solar was also a chance to address a mismatch between the numbers of training opportunities available and young people searching for work, Casey said. "The mums of New Zealand are telling me that there's not enough apprenticeships for their kids and the solar installers of New Zealand are telling me there's not enough trained people."
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