Vattenfall, the Swedish state-owned energy utility, has formally launched a large-scale bidirectional charging pilot that will deploy 200 vehicle-to-grid (V2G) chargers across central and southern Sweden, with the programme running through 2028. The initiative brings together Energy Bank, a Swedish energy software aggregator, and Volkswagen dealerships, and marks the transition from a controlled validation exercise to a real-world, multi-stakeholder deployment targeting both residential users and fleet operators.
From Hudiksvall to a National Scale
The pilot is a direct expansion of an earlier V2G proof-of-concept carried out by Volkswagen, Energy Bank, and the Stenberg housing cooperative in Hudiksvall, a town in central Sweden. That 12-month validation phase tested the technical feasibility of bidirectional energy flows within a single housing association setting, establishing the operational baseline now being applied at broader scale.
The new deployment spans Sweden’s electricity price areas SE3 and SE4, which cover the country’s most densely populated regions, including the greater Stockholm and Malmö areas. By targeting these zones, the consortium is positioning the pilot within market areas where price volatility and balancing needs are most pronounced, and where aggregated EV flexibility is most commercially relevant.
Roles, Technology, and Market Integration
The hardware underpinning the pilot consists of 200 bidirectional chargers supplied by Ambibox, a German manufacturer. Ambibox’s units support both V2G and V2H (vehicle-to-home) energy flows, enabling electricity stored in vehicle batteries to be directed either back to the grid or consumed within the household.
Energy Bank operates the software layer, optimising and aggregating charging behaviour across all connected vehicles. Its platform pools the flexibility from individual EV batteries into a virtual energy resource that can then be dispatched across electricity and flexibility markets. Volkswagen’s MEB-platform vehicles, including all ID. models equipped with batteries of 77 kWh or larger, are factory-ready for bidirectional charging and serve as the compatible vehicle base for the pilot.
Vattenfall takes on two formal grid market roles: balance responsible party (BRP) and balance service provider (BSP). In this capacity, it will trade aggregated surplus energy through Sweden’s Balancing Market, overseen by Svenska kraftnät, the state-owned national transmission grid operator, as well as through Nord Pool, the Nordic electricity exchange, and local flexibility markets. The structure essentially enables EV owners to monetise unused battery capacity without active management on their part.
A Dual-Segment Approach
What distinguishes this pilot from most comparable programmes is the inclusion of both private households and commercial dealership networks within a single framework. Charger installations are planned at residential properties as well as at Scania Volkswagen dealerships, giving the consortium visibility into the performance and economics of V2G across two distinct usage profiles.
Private users typically offer more predictable parking patterns, while dealership deployments introduce a different dynamic, where inventory vehicles and test fleets may be connected for extended periods. Assessing both simultaneously generates more comprehensive data on how aggregated flexibility behaves at scale across heterogeneous participant types.
Grid Context and Strategic Rationale
Sweden’s electricity system is undergoing structural change. Demand is forecast to grow substantially over the next two decades, driven in part by industrial electrification and the expansion of data centre capacity. At the same time, the country’s generation mix is shifting toward a higher proportion of weather-dependent sources, including wind, which introduce greater variability in real-time supply.
This creates a growing requirement for fast-responding, distributed flexibility resources. Aggregated EV batteries are well-suited to this role: they can absorb excess generation when supply exceeds demand and discharge when the reverse is true, all without the capital cost of dedicated stationary storage. The Vattenfall pilot is designed to test whether this theoretical value can be reliably captured at a commercially meaningful scale.
The pilot also addresses a critical participation threshold. V2G programmes require a sufficient number of simultaneously connected vehicles to deliver meaningful grid services. With 200 chargers across two electricity price areas, the consortium is attempting to demonstrate that aggregated residential and commercial EV capacity can cross the threshold required for reliable grid contribution during peak load periods.
Commercial Pathway
Vattenfall has signalled that a commercial V2G and V2H product is the intended outcome if the pilot delivers the expected results. The programme is designed to generate structured data on technical performance, user experience, and revenue potential through to 2028, with findings intended to inform both a commercial product launch and broader regulatory and infrastructure decisions.
Sweden is not alone in exploring this territory. Polestar, in a separate initiative funded by Vinnova, the Swedish Innovation Agency, is running a parallel V2G programme in Gothenburg involving Polestar 3 vehicles, Svenska kraftnät, local grid operator Göteborg Energi Nät, and Chalmers University of Technology. The convergence of multiple pilots in Sweden positions the country as one of Europe’s more active testing grounds for grid-integrated EV flexibility at scale.
