BMW, Ford, and Honda form new company streamline electrical grids, invite other automakers to join
Three major automakers have come forward and announced an equally-owned company focused on creating a single, cost-effective platform to connect EV drivers, automakers, and utility companies. BMW Group, Ford Motor Company, and American Honda Motor Company have partnered up to create ChargeScape, LLC – potentially unlocking new value as an EV owners in North America.
If you didn’t think the world’s largest automakers weren’t taking electrification seriously, this past summer offers plenty of evidence otherwise. While the overall market and EVs especially remains highly competitive, legacy automakers like BMW, Ford, and Honda have been collaborative in the best way.
First we saw a major domino effect in North America after Ford vowed to adapt Tesla’s NACS charging standard which was followed by GM, and pretty much everyone else thereafter. Then, in late July, seven of the world’s largest automakers including the likes of BMW and Honda announced an alliance to build a clean energy-powered fast charger network in North America consisting of over 30,000 new piles.
While many of these companies remain competitors, it has been refreshing to see them join forces to tackle certain hurdles currently facing EV adoption, such as lack of chargers and a universal standard. Another issue currently lurking ahead is the strength electrical grids in North America as EV adooption grows, in addition to a universal platform for utility companies and EVs to communicate with one another.
Today, Ford, BMW, and Honda have announced ChargeScape, which looks to tackle these exact issues for the benefit of all.
BMW, Ford, and Honda look to decarbonize the grid
According to a press release from BMW Group today on behalf of its new partners in Ford and Honda, ChargeScape emerges as a new company that leverages all three companies’ industry experience with the goal of creating an Open Vehicle-Grid Integration Platform (OVGIP).
By creating a single, universal platform, ChargeScape looks to alleviate any need for individual automakers to interact separately with each electric utility. Instead, ChargeScape’s platform would give utility companies managing the grid in North America access a potentially universal pool of energy across EV batteries.
The newly formed company also says it will be able to gather a trove of energy use data from EVs tapped into the grid while charging, providing utilities with precious aggregated information that can be used to improve energy efficiencies and gain a more granular insight on peak demand windows.
Additionally, BMW, Ford, and Honda state that ChargeScape will give more power (literally and figuratively) to EV owners charging at home, including the potential to earn financial benefits by replenishing during off-peak hours. Better still, vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capabilities should eventually enable those EV owners to send the stored energy in their vehicles batteries directly back into the grid, curbing peak demands while potentially putting some money back into consumer pockets.
Add solar technology and home energy storage systems to the equation and the potential for an energy users giving back to their local grids is tremendous. ChargeScape looks to tap into that prospect. BMW North America’s vice president engineering, Thomas Ruemenapp, spoke:
Electric grid reliability and sustainability are the foundation for an EV powered future. ChargeScape aims to accelerate the expansion of smart charging and vehicle-to-everything solutions all over the country, while increasing customer benefits, supporting the stability of the grid and helping to maximize renewable energy usage. We’re proud to be a founding member of ChargeScape and are looking forward to the opportunities this collaboration will create.
The new business formed by Honda, Ford, and BMW has vowed to also help decarbonize the electrical grid in North America, prioritizing clean energy that comes from renewable sources such as wind and solar. By encouraging EV drivers who own homes to integrate renewables into their charging routines, ChargeScape looks to help lower carbon emissions for all while again, putting more power into the hands of consumers regarding how they obtain, use, and sell their energy. American Honda Motor Co. vice president of sustainability & business development, Jay Joseph also spoke:
As Honda seeks to achieve our global goal of carbon neutrality, we are counting on this platform to create new value for our customers by connecting EVs to electric utilities, strengthening grid resources and reducing CO2 emissions. With automakers accelerating toward the electrified future, we must find solutions like ChargeScape that enable all stakeholders to work together for the good of our customers, society and our industry by enabling greater use of renewable energy for and from mobility.
Lastly, ChargeScape looks to further collaborate in brining its OVGIP future to life. Ford, BMW, and Honda have offered an open invitation to all the other automakers to join the company to help expedite and unlock its full potential.
Electrek’s Take
This is the news I love to see and to share with all of you.
Here we have an American, German, and Japanese automaker each joining an equally-shared company to promote EV adoption in North America. Granted none of these three are truly direct competitors in most vehicle segments, but remain companies fighting for the wallets of North American consumers.
The idea of ChargeScape is a marvel to ponder and to me, represents a step toward a future in EVs I feel is inevitable. I foresee EV drivers who own homes adopting solar and wind, charging their vehicles using renewables and storing it in the cars and in their home power packs, then gaining access to V2G capabilities (pending lots of permitting, regulation, and legislation I’m sure), and becoming active participants in grid infrastructure rather than mere users.
Giving consumers to ability to sell their excess energy back during peak demands – especially if it comes 100% from renewables, is tremendous – and a universal platform from BMW, Ford, and Honda could truly help expedite that dream. I love the open invite to join too and hope more automakers take notice and offer to help. Looking at you Toyota. Haha, yeah right!
This feels like a win for everyone – except maybe utility companies who are going to lose their monopoly on energy sales, but I think they’ll still fare just fine. Power to the people, baby!
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
HOUSTON — Amazon, Alphabet’s Google and Meta Platforms on Wednesday said they support efforts to at least triple nuclear energy worldwide by 2050.
The tech companies signed a pledge first adopted in December 2023 by more than 20 countries, including the U.S., at the U.N. Climate Change Conference. Financial institutions including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley backed the pledge last year.
The pledge is nonbinding, but highlights the growing support for expanding nuclear power among leading industries, finance and governments.
Amazon, Google and Meta are increasingly important drivers of energy demand in the U.S. as they build out artificial intelligence centers. The tech sector is turning to nuclear power after concluding that renewables alone won’t provide enough reliable power for their energy needs.
Amazon and Google announced investments last October to help launch small nuclear reactors, technology still under development that the industry hopes will reduce the cost and timelines that have plagued new reactor builds in the U.S.
Meta issued a call in December for nuclear developers to submit proposals to help the tech company add up to four gigawatts of new nuclear in the U.S.
The pledge signed Wednesday was led by the World Nuclear Association on the sidelines of the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in Houston.
Environment
French industrial giant Schneider Electric hails the significance of China’s ‘DeepSeek moment’
China’s so-called “DeepSeek moment” is likely to be good news in the global race to develop artificial intelligence models that can carry out more complex tasks, according to Jean-Pascal Tricoire, chairman of French power-equipment maker Schneider Electric.
“I actually think its good news. We need AI at every level,” Tricoire told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick at CONVERGE LIVE in Singapore on Wednesday.
“We need AI to optimize your whole enterprise at all levels, so that you can buy better, consume better, decide better, source better. To do all of this, we need models to operate on a smaller scale,” he added.
Tricoire said the emergence of Chinese AI app DeepSeek showed that AI models can achieve the same results as some of its more established U.S. rivals, but with a much smaller model.
It “will actually spread AI at all levels of the architecture much faster,” Tricoire said. He added that DeepSeek’s blockbuster R1 model would be “fantastic” for improving safety and reliability when deploying AI on dangerous equipment.
“The spread of AI models at every level of what we need is actually very good news,” Tricoire said.
His comments come shortly after Schneider Electric reported record sales and profits in 2024.
The company, which has been a big beneficiary of the artificial intelligence trend, raised its 2025 profit margin following robust fourth-quarter demand for data centers.
Shares of Schneider Electric rose 33% in 2024, following a 39% upswing in 2023. The Paris-listed stock is down around 7% year to date, however, with China’s recent AI push sparking concerns about AI investment and tech sector returns.
Data centers, which consume an ever-increasing amount of energy, represent a key piece of infrastructure behind modern-day cloud computing and AI applications.
— CNBC’s Ganesh Rao contributed to this report.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports11 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway