At 2015 CES Show, BMW announced the BMW i ChargeForward program. The program aims to demonstrate how intelligent management of EV charging can support the power grid while reducing the cost of ownership of electric vehicles.
We’re very happy to be a part of this project by providing the Battery Second Life (B2L) system in Mountain View, CA. This is a similar system to what we’ve deployed at UCSD in San Diego, and leverages used batteries from the Mini-E vehicles to provide electric grid support.
These batteries while being less suitable for electric vehicle use retain most of their power handling capacity. With a battery second life system, these same batteries can provide power to the grid when loads are high stabilizing the community grid during peak usage.