Luxury vehicle manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and ev.energy has announced they will partner on a new pilot of smart charging tech.
Ten Jaguar I-PACE models using JLR’s connected vehicle platform will be integrated with ev.energy’s software platform, allowing the vehicles to charge automatically according to pre-determined schedules, utility rates, or grid conditions. The two companies state that this will aid in grid balancing while also giving customers a more cost-effective charging experience. If the pilot proves successful, it will be rolled out to customers across the UK, the US, and the EU.
The integration will expand ev.energy’s virtual power plant (VPP), which provides the 55 utilities that EV Energy has partnered with to date a solution for accessing demand-side flexibility, demand response, and dynamic load response.
Previously, ev.energy has partnered with other firms in the EV space to help maximise the benefit of EV charging to the UK grid. These include Nordic EV charger manufacturer Zaptec, with which ev.energy partnered in May of this year to help expand the impact of solar-powered EV charging, as well as EV chargepoint manufacturer Hypervolt, which joined forces with ev.energy in January 2025 to integrate the Hypervolt UltraGrid into the ev.energy platform.
Nick Woolley, CEO & co-founder of ev.energy, said that the initiative “is a prime example of how an automaker and a software provider can work collaboratively to deliver a convenient, high-quality proposition, support the uptake of EVs and alleviate grid pressures to make charging cost-effective”.
Swarna Ramanathan, JLR chief strategy officer added that JLR’s work with ev.energy is “testament to the power of corporate-scale-up collaboration” in solving challenges in the EV industry, noting that the partnership “will support the transition to electrification through the efficient use of energy, with a view to reducing pressure on the grid and lowering costs for users”.
A number of other companies across the UK have also developed their own VPPs to integrate EVs into grid balancing efforts. Arguably the best known of these is Kraken, operated by the UK’s largest energy company Octopus Energy, which announced earlier this week that it now orchestrates over 2GW of domestic power from not only EV batteries, but also home battery energy storage units and heat pumps.
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