With the collaboration between We Drive Solar and MyWheels, Utrecht, a city in the Netherlands is taking the next step in the energy transition, as We Drive Solar’s technology for bidirectional charging cars will be available for MyWheels’ fleet of shared cars.
At the end of 2023, 300 station-based electric shared cars from MyWheels will be connected to the We Drive Solar charging stations in Utrecht. The companies say the ambition is to jointly scale up that number significantly in the coming years, also outside Utrecht. A large number of cars, according to the companies, will be controlled bidirectionally, which means that the car can both charge and discharge and thus act as energy storage for the neighborhood.
MyWheels’ electric shared cars will become part of We Drive Solar’s energy system. Available solar and wind energy is used to charge the shared cars and it can be supplied back when there is more demand for sustainable electricity, the companies said. Shared cars as mobile neighborhood batteries can play an important role in combating grid congestion and thus accelerate the energy transition. According to the press release, the Sharing Group, of which MyWheels and the energy platform EnergyZero are part, invests in a strategy in which mobility and energy come together at neighborhood level.