Vehicle-to-Grid: When EVs Become Energy

Background:

I was looking for a new internship before my internship at BMW was almost coming to an end. I applied a lot on the internet and finally got in touch with HR at Mercedes-Benz Group China.

They interviewed me briefly, and I was fortunate to be accepted by my mentor Xiaoxi — a kind person who probably never realized how profoundly he shaped me.

I felt great when I was sitting in my chair at the office
My commute might have been the longest because I was living in the dormitory in Haidian District, Beijing, but the office was in Daxing District.
But I still love to go there, it was quite tough:

It was during winter, Beijing was cold with freezing wind.

I got up at 5am to catch the metro at 6:10am. Then I could tranfer to a company bus at the exit of metro station at 6:45am and arrive at the office at 8:30 am.

That was the life I had at that moment. It was tough but I was absolutely enjoying it.

My title is Technical Project Manager, I was assigned to participate in some Proof of Concept(POC) projects related to Chinese Electricity Market, including Vehicle-To-Grid(V2G), Fast Charging, and Charging Robot.

V2G is what I want to write about here, because I really gained a lot of knowledge about energy trading from it.

Project Overview:

The project was a Proof of Concept (POC) focused on Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology in the Chinese electricity market.

The main objective was to explore how electric vehicles could interact with the power grid by charging and discharging electricity based on market conditions and grid demand.

The project involved research on electricity trading mechanisms, charging infrastructure, battery management, and the potential business value of V2G services.

V2G is significant because EV owners can discharge electricity back to the grid and generate revenue from it, which naturally involves participation in the electricity market.

I approached the project from the perspective of the electricity market, especially because China’s electricity market was still at a very early stage at that time. My mentor assigned me a large amount of research work, including reviewing consulting reports and conducting extensive independent research.

I spent a great deal of time studying electricity markets around the world, including those in Europe, the United States, and the United Kingdom, in order to understand how different electricity markets were structured and operated.

Later, we combined these findings with China’s national conditions and analyzed the Guangzhou electricity market — including both the spot market and the medium-to-long-term market — to evaluate the feasibility of V2G in China.

During the project, we also collaborated with professors from Tsinghua University who specialized in electricity market research, and aligned information weekly with charging infrastructure suppliers such as Star Charge and TELD.

Eventually, I completed an integrated research analysis of the Chinese electricity market and assisted the V2G project in progressing from a 0-to-1 product development stage.

Product Lifecyle:

The V2G project was still in its early 0-to-1 stage when I joined the team, and the overall lifecycle could roughly be divided into three phases: market research and feasibility analysis, ecosystem collaboration and alignment, and early-stage product implementation.

The first phase:

In the initial phase, my primary responsibility was to conduct market research and feasibility analysis related to the V2G business model and electricity trading systems. Since China’s electricity market was still in the early stages of development, my mentor assigned me extensive research tasks to help the team better understand how mature electricity markets operated internationally and whether similar mechanisms could eventually support V2G adoption in China.

To complete this work, I reviewed consulting reports, policy papers, industry publications, and market materials covering electricity markets in Europe, the United States, and the United Kingdom. I focused particularly on understanding the structure of spot markets and medium-to-long-term electricity markets, as well as how electricity pricing, grid balancing, and energy dispatch mechanisms functioned in practice. I also researched how EVs could potentially participate in grid-side transactions through bidirectional charging.

As a result of this research, I consolidated a structured analysis of different electricity market models and summarized key findings relevant to the Chinese market environment. These research outputs helped support the project’s early-stage feasibility discussions and provided foundational knowledge for later collaboration with universities, charging infrastructure suppliers, and internal stakeholders.

On a personal level, this phase significantly strengthened my understanding of energy trading systems and shaped my long-term interest in market-driven trading mechanisms and quantitative analysis.

The second phase:

In the second phase, the project moved from market research into practical feasibility validation and technical collaboration. At this stage, the company had already decided to further explore the V2G solution, so the focus shifted toward technical discussions, stakeholder alignment, and project execution.

My responsibilities included analyzing the Guangzhou electricity market, coordinating with professors from Tsinghua University, and maintaining regular communication with charging infrastructure suppliers such as Star Charge and TELD. I supported requirement discussions, consolidated research findings, followed up on technical details, and assisted with project timeline and cross-functional coordination.

Through this process, the project gradually developed a clearer understanding of the technical feasibility and business direction of V2G under China’s electricity market conditions. This experience also gave me practical exposure to stakeholder management, technical collaboration, and full-cycle project coordination in an early-stage product development environment.

The third phase:

In the later phase, the project gradually transitioned into practical product development and Proof of Concept implementation. My responsibilities expanded from research and coordination into supporting development execution, project management, testing processes, and business analysis.

I participated in aligning technical requirements with suppliers and internal stakeholders, followed up on project progress, supported testing and operational validation, and assisted in maintaining communication across different teams involved in the V2G solution. We also conducted pilot testing with selected active users to better understand charging behavior, participation willingness, and potential operational challenges under real usage scenarios.

I was also involved in analyzing potential business value and ROI-related assumptions based on electricity pricing mechanisms, charging behaviors, and possible grid participation scenarios.

Through this process, the project moved closer to an actual deployable V2G solution and established a clearer understanding of both technical feasibility and commercial potential. Beyond the project itself, the experience significantly deepened my understanding of energy trading, market-driven systems, and quantitative decision-making, which later became one of the key reasons why I developed a long-term interest in trading and financial markets.

Review:

During the project, I contributed to preparing project decks and supporting internal presentations related to the V2G initiative. I also assisted my mentor in delivering presentations during town hall sessions, where we shared project progress, research findings, and the broader vision of V2G within the future energy ecosystem.

Beyond the technical and research aspects, the project gave me valuable exposure to project management, stakeholder management, supplier communication, and data-based decision-making in a real business environment. I participated in coordinating with charging infrastructure suppliers, aligning technical and business requirements across different stakeholders, and supporting discussions related to project timelines, feasibility, and implementation priorities. Through these experiences, I developed a stronger understanding of how early-stage products move from research into actual development and operational planning.

The project also significantly expanded my understanding of electricity trading and the broader energy industry. While researching different electricity market structures, I started thinking more deeply about how the upstream and downstream parts of the energy ecosystem interact, including power generation companies, grid operators, charging infrastructure providers, and EV manufacturers. I became particularly interested in how market-driven energy systems could evolve alongside renewable energy development such as wind power and hydropower.

At the same time, the V2G project changed the way I viewed electric vehicles. Instead of seeing EVs purely as transportation tools, I began to understand their potential role as distributed energy storage assets that could help balance electricity supply and demand through bidirectional charging mechanisms. I also became increasingly interested in the future direction of China’s electricity market, including the possibility of more sophisticated market structures and diversified trading mechanisms in the future.

Overall, the experience not only strengthened my technical and business understanding of the energy sector, but also shaped my long-term interest in trading systems, quantitative thinking, and market-oriented industries.