Honda to introduce first commercial Energy Management service in Europe

Honda has announced further details of its first commercial Energy Management service – under the new brand ‘e:PROGRESS’ – which will come to market during 2020.

e:PROGRESS will offer a smart charger, smart tariff, and a smart charge control system to deliver optimal charging for users. The smart tariff will be the first flexible energy contract specifically tailored to Electric Vehicle (EV) owners available in Europe, optimising the use of electricity from renewable sources including solar power, wind farms and hydropower. The service also allows charging at the most cost-effective time, relative to grid demand.

The new service will be offered in collaboration with smart charging and aggregation specialist Moixa, and leading European energy supplier, Vattenfall. Through Moixa's GridShare ‘smart charge' system, customers simply specify their preferred parameters for minimum state of charge through a smartphone app, leaving the system to manage charging. Electricity supply is provided by Vattenfall, with a flexible ‘time of use' tariff offering lower cost energy at certain time of the day than a fixed tariff.

The combination of both Moixa and Vattenfall allows EV owners to charge their car to a schedule which makes optimum use of the most affordable and clean energy available. The preferred hardware solution (smart charger) for the new service is Honda's Power Charger, a domestic unit which will charge a Honda e from zero to 100% capacity from a 32-amp power supply in just over four hours, significantly faster than a standard domestic wall socket.

As well as offering a unique set of benefits to customers, e:PROGRESS will help the grid by supporting active grid management to effectively stabilise demand and to optimise the use of renewables, while also supporting Honda in meeting its CO2 reduction targets in line with the company's 2030 vision.

Jørgen Pluym, Energy Management Project Leader, Honda Motor Europe, commented: “The introduction of e:PROGRESS marks a key milestone for Honda in the development of our Energy Management business here in Europe, bringing together all of our work to date to offer real value to EV owners. This is our first move into a service business model in the energy space, and we are committed to continuing to invest and develop in this area as part of the move towards electrification and widespread adoption of electric vehicles.”

The launch of e:PROGRESS follows Honda's first vehicle-to-grid project going live in January, with the installation of bi-directional chargers in Islington, London. This project is a first step in helping the local council electrify its entire fleet in line with its commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2030. The project, delivered in partnership with Moixa using its GridShare smart software, optimises EV battery charging when power from the grid is at its cheapest and cleanest. It can also aggregate groups of plugged-in EVs to send power back to the grid when it is at its most expensive and carbon-intensive.

Honda's Power Charger will come to market in line with first customer deliveries of the Honda e this summer, with the full e:PROGRESS service live within 2020. The new service will be available in the UK initially, with Germany and other European countries to follow.