GM is giving away free home chargers, and paying drivers to charge off-peak
General Motors and Pacific Gas and Electric will give new EV buyers a home charger worth up to $1,999 and $15 a month if they let the utility decide when the car charges. In Germany that arrangement has been mandatory for new wallboxes since January 2024, and in Britain smart functionality has been a legal […] This story continues at The Next Web
General Motors and Pacific Gas and Electric will give new EV buyers a home charger worth up to $1,999 and $15 a month if they let the utility decide when the car charges. In Germany that arrangement has been mandatory for new wallboxes since January 2024, and in Britain smart functionality has been a legal requirement of the hardware since 2022.
General Motors and Pacific Gas and Electric will give buyers of a new Chevrolet, GMC or Cadillac electric car a home charger worth up to $1,999, plus $15 a month, InsideEVs reported . In return the utility decides when the car charges. The offer is live in northern and central California.
Since January 2024, Section 14a of the German energy act has let grid operators turn down new wallboxes and other controllable devices above 4.2 kW when the network is under strain. They may not switch them off, and must leave at least 4.2 kW flowing. It applies to every new installation.
Households take a reduction on their grid fees in return, worth EUR 110 to EUR 190 a year on the most common option. GM is offering $15 a month, which is $180 a year. One of the two is a sales promotion and the other is the grid code.
Every private chargepoint sold in Great Britain since June 2022 must be smart by law under the 2021 regulations , default to off-peak hours, and stagger its start by up to ten minutes so thousands of cars do not switch on at once. Owners may turn the smart functions off afterwards. Public charging is not covered.
The buyer must be a PG&E residential customer, hold an active OnStar plan, and use GM’s preferred installer Electrum, whose standard package costs $1,499 and covers no more than 35 feet of conduit. Trenching and panel upgrades are extra. The charger is free and the installation is not.
WeaveGrid does the scheduling for GM and PG&E, starting and stopping the car remotely, and the driver can override it. Amber Electric raised EUR 49M this month to bring the same kind of household automation to Europe, with the German utility E.ON among its backers.
Article 14(8) of the buildings directive asks member states to make home installation easier, but a request can be refused on grounds the directive never defines, and Britain has no provision at all. California is buying consent one driveway at a time. Germany wrote it into the grid code and Britain into the product standard.
