Honda has announced further details of its first ‘commercial energy management service’. Branded ‘e:Progress’, this will ‘come to market’ during 2020 and offer a ‘smart charger, smart tariff, and smart charge control system’ structured to deliver optimal charging for users.

It 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 new service will be offered in collaboration with smart charging specialist Moixa and leading European energy supplier Vattenfall.

Through Moixa’s GridShare ‘smart charge’ system, customers will specify their preferred parameters for minimum state of charge through a smartphone app, leaving the system to manage the charging.

The preferred hardware solution for the new service is Honda’s Power Charger — a domestic unit capable of charging a Honda e from zero to 100% capacity (from a 32A power supply) in just over 4hr, which is significantly faster than charging from a standard domestic wall socket.

The launch of e:Progress follows Honda’s first vehicle-to-grid project (www.global.honda), which went live in January with the installation of bi-directional chargers in Islington (London).

The project 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.

The availability of Honda’s Power Charger will coincide with the first customer deliveries of the Honda e this summer, with the full e:Progress service going live later this year.

The new service will first be available in the UK, with Germany and other European countries to follow.