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- China's EV market is booming, with BYD surpassing Tesla as the world's largest electric car maker.
- The Chinese government is looking at using EVs as a power source for its electrical grid.
- A "reverse charging" trial recently provided enough electricity to power 133 households for a day.
China's EV market is booming — and now, the government is embarking on an ambitious drive to use it to power the country's national grid during periods of peak demand.
China recently completed its largest ever "reverse charging" test, with 50 EVs temporarily retooled as mobile electricity generators that provided power directly to the grid, according to reports from state-owned media organization CCTV and Bloomberg.
The 30-minute test, which took place in the city of Wuxi, near Shanghai, apparently provided enough power to meet the electricity demand of 133 households for a day.
As small-scale as this test was, it's the first step toward China's ambitious plans to use electric vehicles as a power source when demand surges.
The country's economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, earlier this month unveiled plans to set up more than 50 vehicle-to-grid pilot projects in regions like Beijing and Chongqing by 2025.
China is the world's largest EV market, with the Asian superpower accounting for 59% of global electric car sales in 2022.
It has benefited from the growing prominence of domestic manufacturers such as BYD, which recently overtook Elon Musk's Tesla to become the world's largest EV producer.
According to Bloomberg analysis, China's EV fleet could one day provide enough energy to power the country's peak demand needs. Right now, the focus is on moderating demand from the growing number of electric vehicles on China's roads.
Research from the World Resources Institute reported by Reuters found that power demand could grow by nearly 12% if the number of EVs on Chinese roads hit more than three million by 2035.
Automakers are increasingly experimenting with "bidirectional charging," which switches the direction of electricity flow to allow EVs to become batteries on wheels.
For the most part, the technology is primarily used during natural disasters and blackouts, sometimes to life-saving effect.
Both Ford and General Motors are exploring initiatives that would allow customers to power their homes with excess electricity from their cars, and in the future, stationary EVs may be able to support the US grid at times when demand is high.
China's National Development and Reform Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.