Ford Gets Smart: Electric Cars Will Talk To Meters, Charge At Cheapest Rates

Posted on 20. Aug, 2009 by Ross in North America, Transport

One company actively pursuing the dream of intelligent use of smart meters is Ford.

Not content with pushing forward with bringing electric vehicles to the mass market, the American car company is pushing forward one of the key selling points of electric car technology to the next level. Not only is running a car on electricity cheaper than running one on diesel or petrol (gas for all those the west side of The Pond), but Ford electric vehicles will make sure that they only recharge when the electricity rate is at its cheapest.

Ford is gambling that smart meters, soon to be rolled out across most of the developed world in an effort to aid consumers to lower their energy consumption, will be able to relay the current cost of electricity to household appliances - and cars.

By reading the information being relayed by the smart meter, the electric vehicle can choose to only recharge during off-peak times (overnight, usually), when the price is below a certain threshold (for dynamic pricing meters) or potentially even when the grid carbon value is below a set threshold (when the ratio of renewable energy is highest, allowing direct control over the vehicle’s carbon footprint).

Ford is currently testing the new software which accomplishes this in a fleet of electric SUVs, which have already clocked up 75,000 over the last two years.

Whether or not smart meters are up to the task being demanded by Ford has yet to be seen, as little pressure has been applied to smart meter programs to deliver any functionality past the bare minimum of what the energy companies and governments desire. Ford’s ambitious vision of the interaction between car and grid, however, may raise the stakes somewhat for the delivery of a truly smart grid.

Image by hugo90 @ Flickr