The bundle was announced at the 2025 Octopus Energy Tech Summit. Image courtesy Octopyus Energy.
At the Octopus Energy Tech Summit in London, the company revealed an alliance with Chinese EV mega-manufacturer BYD to scale up V2G technology and bring down costs.
In what Octopus Energy chief executive Greg Jackson called “a world first”, the companies have teamed up to offer UK Octopus Energy customers the ‘Power Pack Bundle’ with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology built in.
The bundle includes a leased V2G-ready BYD Dolphin, a bidirectional Zaptec Pro charger and access to a smart tariff that offers free home charging.
According to Octopus Energy, this is the first time V2G technology is built into the car itself, eliminating the need for a first-generation V2G charger.
The hope behind the partnership is that, as more V2G-ready vehicles hit the road, hundreds of thousands of EVs will soon act as mini power stations.
V2G enables EVs to charge when electricity is inexpensive and send it back to the grid during peak times when electricity is expensive, transforming them into ‘batteries on wheels’. This reduces the grid’s reliance on fossil fuel plants without hampering the car’s main purpose of mobility.
The bundle will be powered by Octopus Energy Group’s tech platform, Kraken; drivers plug in overnight and let the tech do the rest. Octopus Energy says a fully automated process guarantees free charging at home for every mile driven during the lease.
Octopus and BYD have also partnered with Motability Operations, the UK’s largest leasing company, to make the V2G technology available to disabled people across the country.
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Collaboration with BYD
The deal with BYD comes on the back of Jackson’s visit to BYD’s headquarters and R&D base in Shenzhen, China, where he was blown away by the speed of innovation and R&D.
He told the Summit audience: “There was astonishing investment in R&D, creating a whole range of solutions. And so often were just the very beginnings.”
Jackson described how “we sat with their engineers and their designers, and we shared back a little of the tech we’re doing in the UK on flexibility, AI and energy: what we’ve been doing in the world of software that would complement their world of hardware”.
“And by the end of it, I said: ‘I think there’s something we can do together’.”
That ‘something’ is what was unveiled – or rather, driven onto the stage.
Octopus Energy’s V2G ambitions
The partnership with BYD is the latest move of the British energy supplier to tap into the EV market and enhance its offerings through V2G.
In fact, Octopus says they are uniquely placed to lease the cars in the bundle, having launched its own EV business, Octopus Electric Vehicles (Octopus EV), in 2021, which has since grown to become the largest EV-only leasing business in the UK.
Additionally, early last year, Octopus launched the first V2G tariff in the UK.
Also in 2024, during Enlit Europe, Jackson highlighted how the energy transition needs to be “an upgrade for our citizens” and that this is critical for competitiveness and the economy. In turn, this requires making the most of new technologies, with digitalisation being key.
At the time, he anticipated that, just as new onshore wind became cheaper than existing gas plants, EVs would be cheaper than fossil-fuel-run vehicles within the coming years.
He suggested they already were in China, where over half of the new vehicles on the roads are EVs: “EVs will be the single biggest feature of the energy system, at least in the next decade.
“Clean tech is the next wave of technology and China is leading the way. The West needs to learn to run at the same pace as China.”
Priced at £299 (approximately $400) a month, the Power Pack Bundle will be available later in 2025.
