What You'll Learn
- The transformative nature of BEVs beyond simple vehicle replacement
- The critical role of V2G in achieving Net Zero targets
- A complete overview of the V2X ecosystem
- Current regulatory landscape across different markets
- Real commercial applications already in use
- The importance of V2P technology for safety
- The challenges facing widespread adoption
Understanding V2X Technologies
There are many terms surrounding connected car technology. Yet, few people are aware of them or their relevance.
It’s a mistake to think that a Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) is a simple substitute for a combustion car. In reality it’s far more intelligent.
Conceiving of uses for it is a direct consequence, because an EV is vastly more versatile than its fossil fuel ancestor. But applying it is a major challenge owing to the effort needed to design and implement its applications alongside the far slower rate at which infrastructure and legislation can adapt to the potential.
Consider V2G: Vehicle To Grid. It’s a relatively simple application of a BEV. Primarily, it’s just running BEV charging in reverse, supplying power to a domestic or workplace electricity system. There are important consequences to the technology though, not merely in the role of being able to provide cheap power, but also the major role it can play in making Net Zero increasingly feasible.
V2G, conceptually, has been around for almost a decade, yet it is far from mainstream. Currently in 2025, only Australia has gained approval and some European countries are a little way behind. This, then explains a significant amount of the remaining terminology: the V2-somethings will end-up appearing piecemeal in the coming decade and beyond.
Broadly-speaking, V2-somethings are divided into 2 types of connectivity:
- Battery Applications
- Vehicle Communication Applications
Here we’ll take a look at each term; why we want it and what the progress is:
V2X: Vehicle To Everything
What It Is | Why We Want It | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
V2X is an umbrella term for all vehicle connectivity for both battery (i.e. energy transfer) and communications. | For organisational purposes and to illustrate the versatility of EVs. | Automatically achieved when other connectivity is mature. |
Energy Transfer Applications
V2B: Vehicle To Building
What It Is | Why We Want It | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
V2B is the general term for using EVs to better manage electricity demands for all kinds of buildings. | It can save costs when grid electricity is more expensive than stored energy in the vehicle. It can provide energy during power outages. It can help reduce grid load. | Requires V2G support from the car, but doesn’t necessarily require government V2G grid regulations. |
Commercialisation examples: Versinetic’s LinkRay – Local Charger Load Management Controller
V2F: Vehicle To Factory
What It Is | Why We Want It | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
V2F is a specialised case of V2B applied to manufacturing environments | Factories currently need a high proportion of manual labour and therefore a high proportion of the workforce need to commute. As EV adoption grows it makes sense to be able to both charge EVs at work and use them to help power the factory – with financial remuneration. | Significant progress requires a high proportion of EV adoption, which is around 4-5% in European countries (including the UK). European leaders are Norway with 27% registered cars being EVs by 2024 [1] and Sweden with 7.2% [2]. |
V2G: Vehicle To Grid
What It Is | Why We Want It | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
V2G allows vehicles to supplement (or in some cases replace) grid power when it’s the cheapest or most stable option. | EVs currently represent the largest available battery storage in many European states; California and some Asia-Pacific states. As renewables, microgeneration and increased electrification start to take over, infrastructure will lag. There’s a greater need to manage grid power, store and provide electricity locally. | Australia has passed formal acceptance as of late 2024. The UK is aiming for approval in 2025 (though it’s technically possible now); Germany, France and the Netherlands are still on pilot projects [3]. |
V2H: Vehicle To Home
What It Is | Why We Want It | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
V2H is a specialised case of V2B for domestic environments, leveraging ISO15118 standards. | V2H essentially performs the same purpose as home battery storage, though with a much greater average capacity and it’s easier to provide regulation, because it doesn’t need to provide grid power. | ISO 15118 provides the essential standard for bi-directional charging, but regulation is far from complete – ironically, it’s further behind than for V2G. Energy pricing and source emissions are some of the many hurdles [4]. |
V2L: Vehicle To Load
What It Is | Why We Want It | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
V2L is similar to having your car act as a mains socket. | It’s useful for camping, caravans and motorhomes as well as outdoor activities. E.g. it could power a microwave. | Already appearing in a number of cars and is already usable, because of the limited regulation requirements. |
V2M: Vehicle To Microgrid
What It Is | Why We Want It | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
V2M is an application of V2G for off-grid or hybrid localities. | Many of the same reasons as V2G apply to V2M, but in addition, off-grid uses add energy security and resilience during power-outages from extreme weather conditions, energy cyber-attacks or accidents. | Microgrids have at least the same regulatory hurdles as V2G, because they need to integrate with the same kind of grid infrastructure and the grid itself in the hybrid configuration. |
Communications Applications
V2C: Vehicle To Cloud / V2N: Vehicle To Network
What It Is | Why We Want It | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
V2C/V2N an umbrella term which covers the integration of vehicles with vehicle management, software upgrades, diagnostics, traffic management, weather and accident alerts and pedestrian connectivity. | V2C/V2N provides a number of useful services to help improve safety for cars and pedestrians, maintenance and traffic throughput. | Appearing piecemeal. WLAN standards for V2C/N began in 2002; ITU published available standards in 2015; 3GPP design began 2014 & Release 16 covers 5G. Up to 70% of new EU cars support 4G-LTE [5] (making 15% of current road users). For example, VW’s ID. series support 5G. |
V2M: Vehicle To Drive
What It Is | Why We Want It | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
V2D primarily provides infotainment or phone services. | For example, being able to play hand-held games on larger vehicle screens; or hands-free communications. | Automatically achieved when other connectivity is mature. |
V2E: Vehicle To Environment [a.k.a. V2I - Vehicle To Infrastructure]
What It Is | Why We Want It | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
V2E/V2I is the subset of V2C or V2N that communicates with technology outside the car, such as pedestrians, traffic lights, congestion or charging point availability. | Situational and environmental information can significantly improve travel experiences, reduce congestion, optimise energy and improve safety, especially in the context of automated vehicles. For ride-hailing, V2E/I can improve availability. | Forms of V2I are already common, in the form of e.g. traffic information such as roadworks or congestion. Charging point availability is also normal for EVs. However, current implementations greatly lag the potential. |
V2P: Vehicle To Pedestrians
What It Is | Why We Want It | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
V2P is a monumentally under-reported connected vehicle application. It protects pedestrians from collisions. It provides warnings to pedestrians via smart phones and to cars. Furthermore it provides Ride hailing features. | It helps to protect lives, particularly for cyclists as well as vulnerable and blind people; improves self-driving capabilities; is a key component of Transport As A Service (TAAS) and helps ensure pedestrian rights. | There’s a surprising amount of literature on the subject[6], but progress has been slow, mostly because of the amount of vehicle intelligence required. However, real products with some of these capabilities are starting to appear, see this moving volvo EX90 advert [7]. |
V2V: Vehicle To Vehicle
What It Is | Why We Want It | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|
V2V provides communications with vehicles in proximity to one another. | V2V can improve travel safety (by early brake warnings, or hazards such as snow, ice). In addition it can improve traffic flow by maintaining consistent speeds. V2V can implement platoons of cars, reducing congestion, turbulence and energy use. | Over a decade of research and simulations, but limited realisation. V2V requires a high adoption rate to become effective. End-to-end communications delays can destabilise flow [8]. |
The Future of V2X
The set of Vehicle-To-something applications explore the potential scope of EVs. In many respects, they reflect not only the nature of EVs, but their transformative and disruptive power.
There’s a surprising amount of research that’s been applied to Vehicle-To-something over a period of 10 to 20 years. What unites it all is the sheer level of technical complexity. This is because it’s far harder to create safe, computer-based systems that interact autonomously with the real world than what comes naturally for people. As a consequence, it’s also hard to generate suitable national and international regulations, given that technology and culture are a moving target.
Vehicle-To-Something is very much in flux and this can be seen in the wide range of terms, many of which overlap. Yet, it is slowly arriving on a piecemeal basis.
- V2L is a real and useful thing;
- V2G is on the cusp of going mainstream (and when it does will make a huge difference to Net Zero progress).
- Subsets of V2B are already happening as they require less legislation, but Vehicle-To-Environment or Pedestrian are still in their early stages, except for some limited use-cases.
In the coming years, we can expect to see a high degree of economic growth in this space: both in actual products and in new applications. Despite some consolidation, these will certainly exceed the number of letters we have available.
It’s part of the new world we’ll eventually take for granted and in the same sense that EV cars (BEVs) are destined to be just called ‘cars’, the technology will simply be what we expect a vehicle to be.
FAQs
V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) technology enables vehicles to communicate directly with other vehicles, road users, and infrastructure, sharing real-time information to improve safety and efficiency on the road
Connected vehicles use built-in sensors and internet connectivity to collect and transmit data about vehicle performance, location, and road conditions. This information is processed by onboard systems and shared with drivers, other vehicles, and infrastructure to enhance safety, navigation, and convenience
Vehicle connectivity allows for advanced features such as real-time traffic updates, remote diagnostics, emergency assistance, and improved traffic management. It also supports V2X applications, helping to prevent accidents and optimise journeys
V2X is an umbrella term covering all communication between vehicles and their surroundings, including Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I), and Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P). Other terms like V2G (Vehicle-to-Grid) refer specifically to transferring energy from vehicles to the electrical grid
References
[1] https://www.ssb.no/en/transport-og-reiseliv/landtransport/statistikk/bilparken
[2] https://www.trafa.se/globalassets/statistik/vagtrafik/fordon/2025/fordon-2024.pdf
[3] https://mobilityhouse-energy.com/int_en/knowledge-center/article/v2g-progress-in-each-country
[4] https://go-e.com/en/magazine/bidirectional-charging-in-europe
[5] https://www.vatm.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2023-09-26_5G-Masters_Nokia_Berhold-Panzner.pdf
[6] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6359035/
Julian Skidmore is Versinetic’s EV Industry Analyst.
He has a Computer Science degree from UEA and an MPhil in Computer Architecture from Manchester University, as well as over 20 years of experience in embedded systems development.
As a senior software engineer, Julian has worked on EV charging and V2G projects, and has also co-authored EV-related articles for the electronics industry press.
Julian is a proponent of the zero-carbon society and a Guardian News ‘climate hero’. He has owned a battery EV for over two years, has investments in wind farm cooperatives, and has a 4KW domestic solar PV installation.
