Smart Garage Charrette Report

The Smart Garage Charrette Report, published by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) in December 2008, outlines a vision for integrating electrified vehicles (xEVs), net-zero buildings, and a smart renewable grid. Based on a design workshop (charrette) involving 80 experts from 25 organizations, the report identifies a near-term path toward 'V1G' (smart one-way charging) as a faster, less complex first step than 'V2G' (bi-directional charging). It details the ecosystem's stakeholders—automakers, utilities, charging providers, connectors, and consumers—and proposes specific projects to overcome critical barriers such as uncertain consumer demand, high battery costs, and fragmented utility regulation.

• The near-term implementation goal for Smart Garage is 'V1G', which consists of highly integrated systems performing sophisticated one-way charging. This approach is preferred over V2G (bi-directional charging) in the short term because it offers significant benefits with lower cost and complexity, and can be launched within two to five years.
• Uncertain consumer demand is identified as the most critical system-wide barrier. This creates a 'chicken-and-egg' problem where OEMs are hesitant to produce xEVs in large volumes without proven demand, while consumers are hesitant to adopt them without widespread charging infrastructure.
• High battery costs and performance uncertainty at scale represent a major financial barrier. Participants estimated pack-level battery costs would be around $550/kWh in the near term, with some expecting a drop to $400/kWh within a few years. Proposed solutions include separating battery ownership from vehicle ownership and developing secondary markets for used batteries.
• The lack of uniform regulatory policies across the United States is a significant hurdle for utilities and OEMs. Because utilities are regulated at state or local levels, OEMs face the prospect of interfacing with over 3,000 different retail utilities, each with potentially different rules for metering and billing.
• Charging infrastructure is a key enabler for consumer adoption, but its ROI is difficult to establish if based solely on electricity sales. The report suggests that the most viable business models will treat electricity as a loss-leader, deriving value instead from grid services, advertising, or attracting customers to retail locations.
• Communication standards are essential for V1G success to prevent proprietary, incompatible systems. Current efforts include SAE J2836 (message standards), SAE J2847 (use cases), and the Smart Energy Profile (SEP) Alliance (application layer standard).
• RMI's financial model indicates that utilities could be the largest winners in the Smart Garage ecosystem due to avoided cost benefits, new revenues, and ancillary service benefits, provided regulators allow them to realize these gains.
• The report proposes six concrete projects to address the top barriers: 'Project Consumer Demand' (quantifying demand), 'Project Get Started' (city-level incentives), 'Charge Baby Charge' (quantifying infrastructure value), 'Project Second Life' (analyzing used batteries), 'National Utility Policy Project' (creating a national regulatory framework), and 'Project Get Involved' (engaging in standards-making).

APA

Brylawski, M., Burns, C., Chan-Lizardo, K., Cohen, B., Demaria, A., Gately, M., Hansen, L., Harvey, N., Johns, S., Lovins, A. B., Low, C., Ponce, J., Riley, C., Schewel, L., Simpson, M., Wang, K., Wells, L., & Wilson, J. (2008). Smart Garage Charrette Report. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_SmartGarageCharretteReport_2.10.pdf

Chicago

Brylawski, Michael, Cam Burns, Kristine Chan-Lizardo, Bennett Cohen, Andrew Demaria, Mark Gately, Lena Hansen, et al. Smart Garage Charrette Report. RMI, 2008. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_SmartGarageCharretteReport_2.10.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{brylawski2008smart, author = {Brylawski, Michael and Burns, Cam and Chan-Lizardo, Kristine and Cohen, Bennett and Demaria, Andrew and Gately, Mark and Hansen, Lena and Harvey, Ned and Johns, Stephanie and Lovins, Amory B. and Low, Chris and Ponce, Jamie and Riley, Chad and Schewel, Laura and Simpson, Mike and Wang, Kitty and Wells, Llewellyn and Wilson, Jenn}, title = {{Smart Garage Charrette Report}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2008}, month = dec, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_SmartGarageCharretteReport_2.10.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }