Hyundai Motor Group announced the launch of AllDayEnergy, its new global Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) energy services brand, on July 24, 2026, enabling compatible Kia and Hyundai electric vehicles to participate in a managed energy platform that lets owners charge when electricity is cheap and sell stored power back to the grid when it is scarce — and potentially earn money doing it. The service begins rolling out in the United Kingdom through the Kia App in the second half of 2026.

The launch does more than add a name to existing hardware. It marks Hyundai Motor Group's public pivot from describing itself as an automaker to positioning the vehicle as an entry point to an ongoing energy relationship — one where the car's battery earns value between trips, not just during them.

What AllDayEnergy Actually Is

AllDayEnergy is a software-and-services layer that sits atop the bidirectional charging hardware already built into Hyundai Motor Group's E-GMP-platform vehicles — the IONIQ 5, IONIQ 6, Kia EV9, Hyundai Ioniq 9, and related models. The brand unifies three distinct service tiers under one consumer identity:

Smart Charging (V1G): The simplest tier and the one launching first. Instead of drawing power from the grid whenever the car is plugged in, V1G software adjusts the timing and rate of charging in real time based on grid load conditions and electricity prices. It requires no special charger beyond a standard smart wallbox, and no grid export approval. A driver plugs in overnight; the software decides when electrons flow in.

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G): The technically ambitious tier. Energy stored in the battery flows in reverse — from the car back to the electricity grid — when demand is high. Compatible owners participating in utility programs can earn revenue from grid services, with Octopus Energy's Power Pack tariff in the UK reporting typical annual savings of approximately £620 (approximately $830 USD) versus a standard tariff. V2G requires a bidirectional charger and a compatible utility tariff, and it faces certification challenges in the UK that are described below.

Vehicle-to-Home (V2H): Stored battery power flows to household appliances instead of the grid — functioning as a whole-home backup system during outages. The Kia EV9's 99.8 kWh (kilowatt-hour) battery pack can power an average US home for multiple days. Kia launched a V2H service in the United States in February 2025, and US deployments have been used specifically during major wildfire events where grid outages left households without power.

Hyundai Motor Group frames the combined proposition simply: charge when energy is cheap, use stored power when you need it, and sell what remains when the grid needs help.

How the Technology Actually Works

V2G does not function on the same electronics as a standard EV charger. A conventional charger converts grid AC power to DC to fill the battery — a one-way conversion. Bidirectional charging requires the system to run that conversion in both directions, and to synchronize the exported power precisely with the grid's voltage, frequency, and phase parameters.

The communication between vehicle, charger, utility aggregator, and grid operator is governed by ISO 15118, the dominant international protocol for EV-grid interaction. The earlier ISO 15118-2 standard handled smart charging but did not support interoperable bidirectional energy transfer. It was not until ISO 15118-20, published in 2022, that CCS-based bidirectional charging — the connector standard used by most modern European and Korean EVs including all E-GMP-platform Hyundai and Kia models — was properly standardized. ISO 15118-20 adds full bidirectional negotiation: the vehicle and charger agree in real time on how much power flows in which direction and when, based on the owner's minimum charge requirements and the grid operator's dispatch signals.

The economic logic is price arbitrage. Dynamic electricity tariffs in markets like the UK can vary by a factor of ten or more across a single day. A compatible EV charges at low overnight rates, stores energy, then exports it during the 4-to-8 p.m. demand peak. The aggregator — in the UK, currently Octopus Energy — coordinates the dispatch, takes a share, and credits the owner's account.

Where Hyundai Motor Group Has Already Deployed V2X

AllDayEnergy is not starting from a blank sheet. Hyundai Motor Group has been running V2X pilots and live services across three markets ahead of the brand launch:

In South Korea, the group is piloting V2G with Kia EV9 and Hyundai Ioniq 9 owners in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, an island that has aggressively pursued an all-renewable grid. In July 2026, Hyundai completed infrastructure installation at private homes enrolled in the pilot — moving the test out of research facilities and into real household conditions.

In the Netherlands, the group has been running both V2G and smart charging services, in partnership with Vattenfall. The Vattenfall pilot, announced in May 2026, covers up to 80 selected households with EV9 or Ioniq 9 vehicles, specifically designed to validate how bidirectional EV fleets can balance power supply and demand in a market where electricity prices shift sharply in real time.

In the United States, V2H services launched with Kia EV9 owners in select states in early 2025, with emergency backup power during wildfire and outage events as the primary use case.

The UK-First Strategy and What Stands in the Way

The UK is AllDayEnergy's first commercial market for a specific reason: it is one of Europe's more developed environments for bidirectional charging. Smart meters are widely deployed, live V2G tariffs already exist — Octopus Power Pack, currently offered as a bundle of EV lease, charger, and tariff at approximately £299 (approximately $400 USD) per month — and regulatory frameworks for grid export are further along than in comparable markets.

But there is a significant hardware bottleneck that the AllDayEnergy brand launch does not solve on its own.

Out of 14 UK type-testing applications for bidirectional chargers as of early 2026, 11 have failed grid certification. The three that passed all support the CHAdeMO charging standard — a connector standard that has been largely discontinued in Europe and is not used by any current Hyundai or Kia EV. Virtually all E-GMP-platform vehicles use the CCS2 (Combined Charging System) connector, which relies on ISO 15118-20 for bidirectional communication. No CCS-compatible bidirectional charger has yet passed UK grid certification.

What this means practically: when AllDayEnergy launches in the UK via the Kia App later in 2026, the V1G smart charging tier will work for most compatible owners — it needs only a standard smart charger and no grid export approval. V2H can work in setups that route power entirely within the home without grid export. But the V2G tier — grid export, energy market participation, the £620-a-year savings that make the business case compelling — will require a certified CCS bidirectional charger that does not yet exist in the UK market. Owners who want to sell electricity back to the grid will need to wait for charger certification to catch up.

Does V2G Wear Out the Battery Faster?

Battery degradation is the most commonly cited barrier to V2G adoption, and the evidence is nuanced.

A peer-reviewed study involving Stellantis, LG Chem, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that heavy daily participation in V2G grid services increased degradation to approximately 1.8% per year, compared to approximately 1.5% per year for EV-only driving under similar conditions. Over 10 years, that difference compounds: an EV-only battery might lose roughly 15% of its original capacity, while the same battery under aggressive daily V2G use could lose around 33%.

However, a separate study examining optimized V2G dispatch — particularly frequency regulation services, which use shallow, rapid charge-discharge cycles rather than deep discharge — found that incremental degradation from V2G can be reduced to below 1% per year when the system is managed within optimized operating parameters.

Modern battery management systems in E-GMP-platform vehicles actively limit degradation by keeping the battery away from the extreme ends of its charge range. Hyundai's 800-volt architecture also enables more efficient bidirectional conversion compared to 400-volt systems, reducing thermal stress during export cycles. The practical upshot: V2G-enrolled owners who let the software manage dispatch — rather than manually cycling the battery to empty — will see meaningfully less degradation than the worst-case figures suggest.

Who Wants the Customer Relationship When V2X Goes Mainstream?

The strategic question behind AllDayEnergy is not whether bidirectional charging will become standard. Industry projections see the global V2X bidirectional charger market reaching $4.1 billion by 2036, growing at a 14.8% compound annual rate. GM activated vehicle-to-grid capability for more than 250,000 existing bidirectional EVs via a software update in June 2026 — the largest single-automaker V2G activation in US history — requiring no new hardware.

The question is who will manage the energy relationship when it does. Automakers, utilities, and energy aggregators are all pursuing the same customer. By launching AllDayEnergy as a named brand embedded in existing vehicle apps, Hyundai Motor Group is making an explicit claim to that relationship — on the theory that a driver who already trusts the Kia App with their vehicle is more likely to trust it with their electricity bill than to hand that role to a new energy company they have never heard of.

Whether that logic holds when Octopus, Vattenfall, and their equivalents are already running the grid-side infrastructure that makes V2G work is an open question. Energy companies need aggregation at scale; automakers have the vehicles. AllDayEnergy's success may ultimately depend on whether Hyundai Motor Group can build utility partnerships faster than energy companies can build loyalty with EV owners directly.

Woong Tae Hwang, Vice President and Head of the EV Energy Strategy Group at Hyundai Motor Group, described the launch as a significant step toward establishing the group's identity as a smart energy service provider, with a goal of allowing customers to seamlessly optimize their energy usage, reduce their energy costs, and contribute to grid sustainability.

The UK rollout launches with V1G smart charging through the Kia App in H2 2026. V2G and V2H follow as the service expands. Europe, the United States, and South Korea will come after — pending the charger certifications, utility partnerships, and regulatory readiness each market requires.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Kia or Hyundai EV owners in the UK actually sell electricity back to the grid right now?

Not yet — but the infrastructure is nearly ready. Octopus Energy's Power Pack tariff already pays compatible EV owners for grid export, reporting average savings of approximately £620 (approximately $830 USD) per year. The bottleneck is charger hardware: as of early 2026, no CCS-compatible bidirectional charger has passed UK grid certification, which means the V2G (grid export) tier of AllDayEnergy requires a certified charger that is not yet available. The V1G smart charging tier — which controls when the car charges, not whether it exports — can begin on existing smart chargers and is expected to launch first when AllDayEnergy rolls out through the Kia App in H2 2026.

Does using V2G wear out an EV battery faster?

It can — but the magnitude depends entirely on how the system is managed. Research modeling aggressive daily V2G participation found roughly 33% total battery capacity loss over 10 years, compared to roughly 15% for EV-only driving. But studies of optimized dispatch — particularly shallow frequency-regulation cycles rather than deep daily discharge — found the incremental degradation from V2G can be held to below 1% per year. Hyundai Motor Group's battery management system software actively constrains dispatch to protect the battery, which matters for anyone considering participation in an AllDayEnergy V2G program.

What is the difference between V2G, V2H, and V1G — and which one is coming first?

V1G is smart charging: the software controls when the car charges, picking off-peak windows to reduce cost, but no power flows from car to outside. V2H sends battery power to your home's circuits — useful for outages, no grid approval needed. V2G goes the furthest: it sends battery power back to the electricity grid, where utility aggregators can dispatch it during peak demand and credit you for the contribution. AllDayEnergy will launch V1G first in the UK because it has the fewest hardware and regulatory requirements. V2H and V2G follow as partnerships and charger certification mature.

What happens to my car's battery warranty if I participate in V2G?

Hyundai Motor Group has not yet publicly published specific V2G warranty terms for the UK AllDayEnergy rollout. In the US, Hyundai and Kia offer a 10-year/100,000-mile battery warranty on E-GMP platform vehicles, protecting against manufacturing defects and capacity loss below 70% of original capacity. Whether V2G participation affects warranty coverage will depend on the terms Hyundai Motor Group sets when the UK V2G service formally launches. Prospective participants should verify warranty conditions with their dealer before enrolling.