Renault Group and Électricité de France Sign Smart Charging Cooperation Agreement

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 8, French automaker Renault Group and Électricité de France (EDF) officially signed a cooperation agreement, announcing the establishment of a deep strategic partnership within mainland France. The two parties will integrate Renault's industrial resources in electric vehicle manufacturing and onboard smart charging with EDF's comprehensive service capabilities in power supply, home charging infrastructure, and grid dispatching, to launch a one-stop electric vehicle and smart charging solution for detached-house users, thereby lowering the barrier to electric mobility and daily electricity costs for consumers across France.

In the cooperation agreement, both parties clearly defined the allocation of rights and responsibilities as well as market promotion constraints. Under the terms, Renault Group will designate the DREEV platform and IZI by EDF as the officially recommended home smart bidirectional charging service providers for Renault and Alpine brand electric vehicles in mainland France; EDF, in turn, commits to customizing exclusive electricity price contracts tailored to bidirectional charging characteristics and to ensuring real-time interconnection between charge-discharge data and the grid settlement platform.

System evaluation metrics released by both parties show that this smart bidirectional charging system can help users save up to 50% of their daily charging electricity expenses. Based on the average electricity consumption of 15 kWh per 100 kilometers for conventional electric vehicles and France's current peak-valley price differential, the combined economic benefits for models such as the Renault 5 E-Tech equipped with a 52 kWh battery—derived from vehicle-to-grid reverse power transmission earnings and off-peak charging savings—translate to as much as 10,000 kilometers of free driving per year.

Leveraging EDF's integrated virtual power plant dispatching platform, the large-scale deployment of bidirectional charging electric vehicles forms a distributed flexible energy storage network capable of providing multi-megawatt-level frequency regulation and peak-shaving capacity, effectively alleviating peak load pressure on local grids and improving the real-time consumption and utilization rate of renewable energy such as wind and solar power in mainland France.

According to the established timetable announced by Renault Group and EDF, the jointly developed smart bidirectional charging solution and supporting exclusive electricity services are scheduled to officially launch in the French market before the summer of 2027. By then, French consumers will be able to directly purchase this one-stop product through Renault's nationwide dealer network. In the next phase, the two companies will fully carry out technical interface standard alignment, dealer service system training, and joint testing of vehicle infotainment systems with the smart grid dispatching platform to ensure the first batch of vehicle-to-grid and vehicle-to-home services are delivered and implemented on schedule.