Smart Charging: A New Era for EU Drivers
By Antoine Picron, Director Europe at ChargePoint
The electric vehicle revolution is well underway in Europe[1], and with it comes a paradigm shift in how we think about our cars and their relationship with the power grid. Smart charging is at the forefront of this transformation, promising a future where EV drivers save money while actively helping to create a more sustainable and resilient energy system.
As regulatory and technical hurdles are progressively dismantled across the European Union, advanced smart charging functionalities like V2G are moving from concept to reality, unlocking a host of new benefits for drivers.
The Financial and Environmental Perks of Smart Charging
At its core, smart charging allows EV owners to optimize their charging schedules based on grid conditions and electricity prices. But it goes further: smart charging can also take into account a driver's own energy environment – such as rooftop solar panels or home battery systems – to maximise self-consumption and minimise reliance on the grid. This means charging during off-peak hours when energy is cheaper and cleaner, leading to significant cost savings on electricity bills. According to a 2025 study by Eurelectric and EY, an EV owner in Europe could save between €450 and €2,900 per year by combining smart charging with bidirectional V2G capabilities.
Beyond individual savings, smart charging is a crucial tool for grid stability. By intelligently managing charging times, the system can prevent overloading the grid during peak demand periods. This increased resilience is essential as the number of EVs on the road continues to grow. Drivers and fleet operators can also participate in aggregator-led flexibility schemes, pooling their vehicles' charging capacity to provide demand-response services to the grid, and earning compensation in return.
Furthermore, smart charging facilitates the integration of renewable energy sources. EVs can be charged when solar and wind power are abundant, ensuring that the energy used for transportation is as green as possible.
The Game-Changer: Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G)
One of the most exciting developments in smart charging is bi-directional charging, and in particular, V2G. V2G enables electric vehicles to feed stored energy back into the energy grid, turning every V2G-enabled EV into a mobile battery, creating a decentralized energy storage network.
For drivers and fleet managers, this opens up a new potential revenue stream. By selling excess energy back to the grid during peak hours, EV owners can earn money and offset the cost of ownership. This could be particularly beneficial for those with home solar panels, who can store excess solar energy in their car's battery and sell it back to the grid when prices are high.
The technology is already being deployed at city scale. The clearest large-scale proof of concept so far comes from Utrecht, in the Netherlands, where We Drive Solar operates Europe's first large-scale vehicle-to-grid car-sharing service in partnership with Renault Group and car-sharing platform MyWheels. The system uses an intelligent aggregation platform that schedules charging and discharging based on real-time energy market prices and car-sharing reservation data, charging when solar and wind energy is abundant and cheap, and feeding power back to the grid during evening demand peaks. Now scaling to 500 bidirectional Renault 5 E-Tech cars and 500 chargers, the fleet can relieve around 5 MW of grid congestion. The project has moved beyond its pilot phase in June 2026, when Dutch grid operator Stedin formalised this flexibility through a Capacity Management Contract.
Research commissioned by Transport & Environment and carried out by the Fraunhofer Society found that a properly deployed V2G system across Europe could save up to €22 billion a year in energy system costs like grid upgrades by 2040, and as much as €175 billion cumulatively between 2030 and 2040.
Overcoming the Hurdles to a Smarter Grid
The widespread adoption of advanced smart charging and V2G has been hampered by several regulatory and technical barriers. However, the EU and its member states are actively working to remove these obstacles.
A key focus is the issue of double taxation, where drivers could be taxed on both the electricity they consume to charge their vehicle and the revenue they generate from selling power back to the grid. Recognizing this as a significant disincentive, policymakers are actively working to streamline the tax treatment of V2G transactions. Germany, for instance, took a landmark step in November 2025 when its Parliament amended the Energy Industry Act (EnWG) to eliminate the double taxation on electricity fed back from EV batteries. Since 1 January 2026, energy discharged from an EV is treated the same as electricity from stationary storage assets, making V2G economically viable in Europe's largest car market for the first time.
On the regulatory front, a wave of binding EU legislation is now reshaping the landscape. The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) governs charging infrastructure standards and interoperability requirements across the bloc, while the revised Electricity Market Design and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive are modernising the power grid and mandating smart charging points and EV-ready building infrastructure to support the growing charging load.
Technical interoperability challenges are also being addressed head-on. The EU's Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) has made the ISO 15118 communication standard a legal requirement. From 1 January 2027, ISO 15118-20 – which adds full Vehicle-to-Grid capability and Plug & Charge capabilities – becomes mandatory for all new public and private charging points alike. ISO 15118-20 is a cornerstone: it provides the standardised communication layer that underpins Plug & Charge authentication, bidirectional power flows, and real-time energy scheduling between vehicles, chargers, and the grid. Alongside it, the evolution of the EU's grid connection codes and continuous work on standardisation and certification are equally important. Together, these standards and codes are laying the groundwork for a truly interoperable, pan-European smart charging ecosystem.
Finally, a less visible but equally critical hurdle is smart meter adoption. Smart meters provide the real-time consumption data that smart charging algorithms need to optimise schedules and enable smart charging and V2G transactions. While countries like Italy, France, and the Netherlands have achieved near-universal coverage, others lag significantly behind – Germany, for example, had equipped only 5.5% of households with intelligent metering systems as of December 2025. Across the EU as a whole, smart meter penetration stood at roughly 60% at the end of 2023 and is expected to reach 80% by 2029. Accelerating this rollout, particularly in markets that are simultaneously pushing V2G, will be essential to unlocking the full potential of smart charging.
The Road Ahead
The path to a fully integrated and intelligent EV charging ecosystem is becoming clearer. As the remaining blockers are removed, EU drivers can look forward to a future where their electric vehicles are not just a mode of transportation, but also a valuable asset that contributes to a cleaner, more affordable, and more reliable energy system for all. The continued investment in fast-charging stations, smart-grid systems, and renewable energy integration will only accelerate this transition.
[1] In 2025, electric car sales across the continent rose by more than 30% to reach 28% of total sales, according to the IEA's Global EV Outlook 2026.