Panel overview
The panel, moderated by event host Sarah Aubrey, brought together Tom Rose (senior product manager at Evnex), Ross De Rango (director of Vehicle Charging Solutions), Danny Purcell (co-founder and CEO of Basis), and Dan Adams (from Amber Electric) to discuss home EV charging, solar tariffs, and vehicle-to-grid technology in the Australian market.
Why a wall charger beats trickle charging
Time Rose opened by comparing charging speeds: a standard trickle charger adds about 10 kilometres of range per hour, a single-phase wall charger adds 40 to 50 km/h, and a three-phase unit can exceed 100 km/h. He argued the gap matters most during short windows of cheap or free solar power in the middle of the day, when a slow charger simply can’t pull in enough energy before the window closes. He also pointed to overload protection built into many wall chargers, which monitor total household draw and back off automatically if the car, air conditioning, and oven are running at once.
Making use of free solar windows
De Rango described the basic strategy for a solar-sharing tariff with three free hours a day: shift any load that doesn’t need to run at a specific time, such as EV charging, hot water heating, and pre-cooling or preheating a well-insulated home, into that window. He noted a common failure mode: people turning on everything at once and blowing a fuse, which is fixed by having an electrician swap the main switch for a circuit breaker.
Centralised load management
Purcell’s company, Basis, builds switchboard-level intelligence that manages these loads centrally. He described a feature, enabled by an installing electrician, that prioritises circuits (deprioritising hot water and EV charging first) and takes advantage of the fact that circuit breakers can handle 40% over their rated current for about an hour, avoiding a blown pole fuse and the roughly $700 charge to replace it. He said the demand for this is more common in new developments trying to lower transformer and connection costs than in individual homes, though the consequences are severe when it does happen. Rose added that EV chargers are unusual among home loads because they draw maximum rated power continuously for hours, unlike appliances such as ovens or heat pumps that taper off once they reach temperature.
Amber’s vehicle-to-grid trial
Dan Adams explained vehicle-to-home (using the car battery to power the house in the evening) and vehicle-to-grid (exporting power for grid support or profit). Amber’s trial has expanded from 50 to 1000 customers and now includes BYD Atto 3 and Seal owners, who can get a single-phase charger installed for around $3,000. He gave a working example: charging costs roughly 20 to 30 cents on a cheap midday rate, while evening exports can earn 25 to 35 cents per kilowatt-hour, occasionally spiking to $100 in a single evening during high-price events. He cited historical annual earnings of around $2000 per household, split roughly evenly between vehicle-to-home savings and vehicle-to-grid export income.
The warranty question
Adams said most EVs can technically do V2G unless the manufacturer has blocked it, but few are warrantied for it yet. He argued the concern isn’t really battery health, since a steady 7 kW export causes far less degradation than fast highway charging at up to 200 kW, but rather manufacturers wanting control over the interaction between car and charger. BYD has agreed to warranty the vehicles in Amber’s trial. An audience member asked about using an out-of-warranty Tesla Model 3; Adams said it works in practice, without a warranty, and predicted manufacturers have little incentive to block it since doing so would just push buyers toward brands that support it.
Where this is heading
De Rango estimated a physical ceiling on vehicle-to-grid at scale: even with 20 million EVs on the road, the grid likely couldn’t absorb more than 4 to 5 million exporting simultaneously. He also framed the near-term consumer barrier as fragmentation, since a working V2G setup currently depends on the right charger, the right retailer, and the right car all aligning, something he expects to simplify over the next few years. On timing, Adams estimated broader manufacturer support is roughly 14 months out, and that Amber’s own trial has about two more years to run before a commercial product without a wait list becomes available; a wait list of roughly 10,000 people were mentioned.
Shopping around still matters
Several panelists returned to a simpler point: many households leave money on the table by staying on outdated retail plans. Sarah noted that retailers are legally required to flag cheaper plans on the bill at least every 120 days, and cited a family member saving $1,200 just by switching. Rose said Evnex’s app checks nearby retail plans automatically and has found savings of over $1000 a year for some users. De Rango compared it to insurance and other services where loyal customers typically pay more over time than new customers get quoted.
