From Charging to Participating
EV + Bidirectional Charging
From charging to participating
As electric mobility accelerates, Hager is building the infrastructure that connects it to the energy system, from continental-scale charging to bidirectional integration in the home.
Europe’s electricity system is changing shape. Renewable generation is expanding, but its variability creates new challenges for balancing supply and demand. At the same time, millions of electric vehicles are arriving on the roads, each carrying a battery of 50 to 90 kWh, five to ten times larger than most residential storage systems. A vast distributed storage capacity already exists within households. The question is whether it can be activated.
Powering the network
When TotalEnergies, one of Europe’s largest charge point operators, set out to expand its charging network across B2C, B2B, and public segments, they needed more than hardware: interoperability across markets, regulatory compliance, cybersecurity, and operational reliability at every location.
“We brought together competitive hardware, integrated software for monitoring and control, and services designed around two KPIs: maximising uptime and optimising total cost of ownership,” explains Marie Hutzinger, Head of Marketing eMobility. “That combination earned us a five-year partnership.”
With REACH and RoHS compliance, verified Product Environmental Profiles, cybersecurity aligned with EU regulations, and a pan-European service network, Hager gave TotalEnergies a single partner for its electrification journey from procurement to long-term operation.
In the last twelve months, we completely renewed our e-mobility portfolio, from residential AC charging through commercial infrastructure to bidirectional charging. With TotalEnergies, we proved we can deliver at continental scale. With bidirectional charging, we are opening the next chapter: the EV as an active part of the building’s energy system. That is where charging, storage, and energy management converge, and that is where Hager is heading.
From charging to giving back
Charging gets electricity into the vehicle. Bidirectional charging lets it flow the other way, enabling EVs to act as electricity storage devices and EV charging stations to act as facilitators of energy management. Electricity stored in the e-vehicle battery can be used by the household in the evening during peak energy prices or electric shutdown. The EV stops being a passive load and becomes part of the home energy system. Hager tested this in a three-year field study with Audi. Ten employee households with photovoltaic systems took part, examining how Vehicle-to-Home performs in everyday life, including days when vehicles were unavailable during peak solar hours.
Over three years, vehicle batteries supplied an average of 7.000 kWh to participating households, equivalent to roughly two years of consumption for a typical three-person home. “The EV becomes part of the building’s energy intelligence,” says Ulrich Reiner, Innovation Manager E-Mobility & Energy. “That changes the economics of home energy fundamentally.”
Management Summary
The risk: renewable variability strains Europe’s grid while millions of EV batteries sit idle, their distributed storage capacity untapped.
The approach: Hager delivers continental-scale charging through its TotalEnergies partnership and integrates bidirectional Vehicle-to-Home technology into E3/DC’s ecosystem, validated in a three-year field test with Audi.
The impact: 7.000 kWh fed back to households over three years, up to 9% energy autonomy gain, savings of up to €450 per year, and the EV transformed from passive consumer to active energy asset.
The integrated advantage
These results depend on more than the charger. At Hager, bidirectional charging sits within an integrated ecosystem of photovoltaic generation, and intelligent energy management. This is made possible by Hager’s Flow solution, the integration of 360 AI, and electric mobility.
Because Hager provides charging, storage, and energy management as one solution, the vehicle battery and home battery work together, allowing households to reduce energy costs while maintaining flexibility. Combined with optimised sizing and intelligent control, savings of up to €450 per year are achievable.
In Germany, this integrated approach also extends to multi-family buildings. Through the Mieterstrom model, Hager and its partner metergrid enable locally generated solar energy to be supplied directly to tenants. Metering infrastructure, energy management, and billing are combined into one seamless solution, turning shared residential buildings into active participants in the energy system.
Access starts with charging. Optimisation starts with bidirectional capability. Energy management orchestrates the whole. The same principle applies at commercial scale, where Hager’s energy management platforms, stationary storage, and charging infrastructure already form a complete offer for buildings with far larger energy profiles. As Vehicle-to-Grid applications mature, the potential grows further. Hager is already building that foundation.