Bidirectional charging: what works today?

With normal charging, power flows one way: from the grid into your car. With bidirectional charging it can also flow back. Your car then becomes a battery on wheels, for your home or for the grid. That sounds simple. In practice four things must fit together exactly, and in the Netherlands it works in only a few places so far.

V2L, V2H and V2G: three forms

You will meet three abbreviations. They look alike, but they do different things.

V2L (vehicle-to-load): you plug a device into a socket in or on your car. A kettle at the campsite, tools on a job. Many new cars can do this. It does not power your home.

V2H (vehicle-to-home): your car supplies power to your own home. For example in the evening, when your solar panels produce nothing and the power price is high.

V2G (vehicle-to-grid): your car supplies power to the grid. Besides the technology, this needs an energy supplier that allows it and pays for it.

So a car that can do V2L cannot automatically do V2H or V2G. That depends on the car, the charger, your installation and your contract.

Four things must fit together

Car: what counts is the exact version and the software, not the brand. Two cars with the same name can differ here.

Charger: you need a bidirectional charger that is proven to work with your car. Car and charger talk to each other through the ISO 15118-20 standard. Feed-in needs it, but not every car and charger speaks it yet.

Home: your connection, your meter cupboard and the control system must be able to handle it. Often an energy management system decides when the car charges and feeds back. You register the combination of car and charger with your grid operator, through energieleveren.nl. That is mandatory, just as for a home battery.

Contract: your energy supplier must allow feed-in from your car. Also ask what you get for it. On a fixed rate there is little to gain. On a dynamic contract there is, because you charge cheaply and feed back when power is expensive.

Where does the Netherlands stand?

In June 2026 the Dutch government published the National Roadmap for Bidirectional Charging. It shows how early it still is. In early 2026 about 150 shared cars in Utrecht charged bidirectionally, and about 50 in Eindhoven. For people with their own driveway, one provider brings a home offer in 2026. Public charge points cannot do it yet.

The roadmap splits the scale-up into two phases. Until 2030 it works only with fixed pairs: one car with one charger, registered per location with the grid operator. Between 2030 and 2035 every car must be able to charge bidirectionally with every charger. The aim: anyone who buys a new car from 2035 can charge bidirectionally, at home, at work and on the street. That is an aim, not a promise.

What does it earn?

According to calculations cited in the roadmap, feed-in on a flexible tariff earns an EV driver 200 to 700 euros a year (EY and Eurelectric, 2025). That depends heavily on how often your car is at home, how you charge, your solar panels and your contract. Set the costs against it. A bidirectional charger costs more than a normal one. Feed-in also costs energy: some is lost when charging and discharging.

Two rules change. On 1 January 2027 net metering (saldering) ends. After that, if you charge grid power into the car and feed it back to the grid, you can in some cases pay energy tax twice on the same power. There is no solution for that yet. And from 2029 grid tariffs will depend on the time of day.

Smart charging already captures a large part of the gain today: charging when power is cheap and green. In the Netherlands 57% of charging sessions are already smart.

Your battery and the warranty

Every battery wears, from driving, from charging and from feed-in. How much extra wear feed-in causes depends on how the charger controls the battery. Battery warranties are usually stated in years or kilometres, for example 8 years or 200,000 kilometres. Read in your car's warranty terms whether feed-in is covered. A written commitment from the manufacturer counts, a sales conversation does not.

Power during a power cut?

Not automatically. If the grid fails, your installation must disconnect your home safely from the grid before the car can supply power. That takes extra equipment and an installer to fit it. According to the roadmap, the technology for backup power from the car is not there yet. Ask your supplier and installer, and get it confirmed in writing.

What does bidirectional charging mean for your ERE's?

Your ERE's come only from power the charger delivers to your car. Power your car feeds back to your home or the grid does not count. Article 9 of the Regeling energie vervoer says so. The NEa counts net: what your car charges, minus what it feeds back. For a charger that can feed back, the booking verifier checks that the feed-in was deducted.

Otherwise a bidirectional charger must meet the same requirements as any other charger. There is a MID meter inside the enclosure, and the charger passes on that meter's measurement. On top of that, feed-in must appear separately in your charging session data. Without that data we cannot deduct the feed-in, and then we book nothing. Before you buy, check whether the model has a MID meter with the charger check. If you already have a bidirectional charger, send us a message. We will look together at what it passes on.

Buy now or wait?

Waiting makes sense if your combination of car and charger is not confirmed, if the costs are higher than what it earns, or if your supplier's terms are unclear. You miss little. A normal charger with a MID meter earns you ERE's today, and with smart charging you charge in the cheap hours. If you do buy, ask for confirmation per part: from the car manufacturer, the charger supplier, the installer and your energy supplier.