Electric Cars
BMW aims to take a huge load off the power grid in California, where most of the automaker's i3 cars are sold. The company has unveiled the so-called BMW i ChargeForward program, a pilot project that it has created in collaboration with PG&E.
BMW is one of the few automakers that are putting a lot of effort into expanding the charging solutions in the countries it sells its all-electric i3 model, offering innovative solutions and creating various programs that make it easier for owners to locate publicly available charging stations. The latest initiative launched by BMW aims to take a load off the power grid in California, where most of the i3 cars are purchased, so that it can handle the increased power demand in the future, which is expected to occur when electric cars become more common.
The German car maker has unveiled the so-called BMW i ChargeForward program, a pilot project that it has created in collaboration with PG&E, a California-based utility company, which will basically incentivize i3 owners to delay charging in an attempt to ease strain on the power grid.
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The program started in July, and will run through December 2016 in the San Francisco Bay Area, awarding gift cards to BMW i3 owners who agree to charge their vehicles during times of low power demand. With this program, up to 100 BMW i3 owners in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties who also purchase their electricity from PG&E, will receive $1,000 gift cards after agreeing to delay charging during peak hours, which will help reduce the stress on the grid.“One thing that we’ll be investigating with this pilot is understanding how people charge, how flexible they are with respect to when they charge, and how best to design future products in a way that benefits both customers and utilities,” noted Julia Sohnen, Advanced Technology Engineer – Sustainable Mobility at the BMW Group Technology Office USA.
PG&E will inform BMW when power demand is high, and the car maker will then choose a group of drivers that it will ask to delay charging for an hour. Owners will then be able to accept the delay or opt out in case a charging delay is not convenient for them at that particular moment. If they agree not to charge their car when asked by BMW, the company will wirelessly interrupt charging and let the owner know that charging will not be available over the next hour. The automaker will select owners for a charging delay based on their driving needs, which they will have entered into the i Remote App that informs i3 owners about the status of their vehicles at all times.
In addition to the $1,000 they receive at launch, owners will also be eligible for an additional gift card of up to $540 at the end of the program, depending on how many times they agreed to delay charging over the course of the 18-month program.
With this managed charging program, BMW hopes to help reduce the impact of electric vehicles on the electric grid in California, which should in turn help keep electricity prices from rising in the future, when much more electric vehicles are expected to hit the roads, leading to substantially increased power demand.
| By Jordan Perch | Embed |
Author Bio - Jordan Perch is an automotive fanatic and “safe driving” specialist. He is a writer for DMV.com, which is a collaborative community designed to help ease the stress and annoyance of “dealing with the DMV.”
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