BMW has unveiled its i Home Charging Services at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.
The company claims it is the first vehicle manufacturer to offer such a broad-based EV smart charging product.
With i Home Charging Services, the electric vehicle is charged with solar power where available. When sufficient solar electricity isn’t being produced, or in the case of a non-solar household, the vehicle is automatically charged at the cheapest off-peak rates. BMW says using the smart-charging feature can result in savings of up to 800 dollars a year in the USA where Time-Of-Use (TOU) electricity pricing is in place.
“With this fully automated charging service, customers get a simple-to-operate system that integrates vehicle charging with the household electrical system and online-based data systems,” said BMW Project Manager Julian Lienich. “Our aim is to make mobility as cheap as possible for users and to allow them to maximise their use of green power – but without having to organise everything themselves,”
The live demonstration of BMW i Home Charging Services at CES involves a solar carport supplying electricity directly to the BMW i Wallbox (pictured below), which charges the vehicle. The iWallbox can charge a BMW i3 up to 30 % faster than the standard included charging cable; meaning 80 % capacity can be achieved in under 6 hours based on a 16A current.
BMW is also using the demonstration to showcase a stationary energy storage system built from repurposed batteries previously used in BMW i electric vehicles that can in turn be used to charge an electric vehicle or to meet household power needs.
BMW says a solar carport with a roof area of at least 25 square metres can generate enough electricity for 32,000 kilometres of electric driving a year (global average). In Australia, the average driver clocks up around 15,530km per annum.
“The fact that the system is integrated with home energy management systems also makes it possible to achieve the best possible balance between household electricity consumption and power used for charging the electric vehicle, thereby helping customers to achieve further cost savings and to make even more efficient use of solar energy,” the company says.
According to BMW, i Home Charging Services will be available by 2016.
