As part of its sustainability strategy, BMW is pursuing bidirectional charging as a key technology to integrate battery electric vehicles (BEVs) into the energy system. In the joint research project Bidirectional Charging Management (BDL), BMW and its partners from the energy and research sectors developed and tested vehicle-based flexibility use cases both behind and in front of the utility meter.

The project confirmed the technical feasibility and systemic benefits of bidirectional charging through simulations, laboratory setups, and a field test with more than 50 BMW electric vehicles. Results demonstrated household electricity cost savings of around 7.5% through PV self-consumption optimization (V2H), higher savings for households with energy-intensive assets such as heat pumps, and potential reductions of peak loads in business environments (V2B). Participation in intraday markets (V2G) yielded up to €90 per month per vehicle. Modeling further showed that large-scale adoption of aggregated BEVs can reduce the need for stationary storage and lower total cost of ownership.

Building on these results, BMW is now engaged in the follow-up project BDL Next, which evaluates mass-market readiness with the BMW Neue Klasse iX3 in real customer scenarios. The project focuses on seamless integration of vehicles into household energy systems, tariff optimization, and participation in grid services within a standardized and customer-friendly framework.