At this price, this EV is effectively a mobile battery with a free car thrown in

This week, an article by Giles Parkinson in Renew Economic system discussing the numerous drop in battery costs caught my consideration. In keeping with CSIRO’s newest Gencost report, battery prices have decreased by over 20% prior to now 12 months. Nonetheless, this determine may be an underestimate, which regularly occurs within the realm of renewable power.

Trina Photo voltaic’s new 2,600MWh battery in Kwinana, WA, is reportedly priced at $300/kWh. In distinction, the article mentions that extra frequent costs for big four-hour batteries hover round $423/kWh, with the battery itself accounting for $294 of that value.

Whereas economies of scale definitely play a job, these costs appear inconsistent with present domestic-scale residence battery techniques, which are inclined to vary from $1,000 to $1,200/kWh, significantly in mild of the Chinese language provide surplus highlighted in Parkinson’s article.

On one other be aware, the GWM Ora prolonged vary is at the moment out there in Perth for $26,490 drive-away and incorporates a 63kWh LFP battery. This brings the price of the battery right down to roughly $420/kWh, successfully making the remainder of the automobile seem to be a bonus.

This raises the query: might this automobile function an alternative choice to a house battery, significantly for vehicle-to-home (V2H) or vehicle-to-grid (V2G) purposes, along with being a metropolis automobile? Whereas the official Australian GWM web site states it can not, additional investigation suggests in any other case.

Ambibox GMBH, an organization based mostly in Mainz, Germany, focuses on bidirectional chargers which were examined with numerous electrical automobiles (EVs). Their CCS2 connector charger converts the automobile’s DC output to AC while not having to switch the automobile itself.

Ambibox has achieved “plug and play” compatibility with a number of EVs, together with the Tesla Mannequin Y and Mannequin 3 (offering a 10kW output) in addition to the BYD Atto 3 (7kW). It’s fascinating to notice that once they reached out to BYD, the corporate was unaware of its automobile’s bidirectional charging functionality!

In collaboration with Mobility Home, a Munich-based firm that focuses on platforms for integrating EVs with the ability grid, Ambibox has compiled an intensive record of EV producers and fashions that assist V2X (vehicle-to-everything) expertise. This record consists of the GWM Ora Funky Cat, BYD Atto, Han, and Tang, amongst others. Though these are primarily European fashions, they haven’t been marketed as having V2X capabilities.

Whereas Australia continues to be catching up with V2X expertise utilizing CCS2 connectors, the required requirements are being established, and the primary bidirectional items have gotten out there out there. Ambibox has even partnered with Brisbane-based RedEarth to supply its V2G chargers domestically.

It seems that among the extra inexpensive EV choices in Australia would possibly provide larger flexibility than beforehand marketed. We’re at the moment delaying the acquisition of a house battery with the hope that our BYD Dolphin would possibly fill that function as an alternative. Hopefully, testing on this space will start quickly.



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