Vehicle-to-Grid as a 5G Smart Grid Vertical Non-Technical Barriers and Implications for Communication Networks

Jul 16, 2026

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) are technologically mature yet face slow large-scale deployment driven primarily by non-technical constraints. The paper positions V2G as a 5G-enabled smart grid vertical and translates business, governance, social, and infrastructure/ecosystem barriers into communication-system requirements. Using a PRISMA-guided review of 974 publications (2009–2025) and analysis of 162 implementation-critical studies, it derives needs for fine-grained metering and settlement, interoperable protocols, privacy-by-design data governance, differentiated latency/reliability services, and edge–cloud partitioning for flexible control.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

Introduction

Motivation and context

Review basis and four-domain framework

Paper contributions and communication requirements mapping

Vehicle-to-Grid as a 5G Smart Grid Vertical: Non-Technical Barriers and Implications for Communication Networks Shangqing Wang∗ , Laura del Rio Carazo‡, and Frank H. P. Fitzek∗† ∗ Deutsche Telekom Chair of Communication Networks, Technische Universitaet, Germany † Centre for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop (CeTI), Technische Universitaet, Germany ‡ Escuela Tcnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicacin, Universidad Politcnica de Madrid (UPM), Spain [E-mails: shangqing.wang@tu-dresden.de](E-mails: shangqing.wang@tu-dresden.de), [laura.delrio@upm.es](laura.delrio@upm.es), frank.fitzek@tu-dresden.de arXiv :2607 .00589v 1 [ cs .NI] 1 Jul 2026 Abstract—Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and broader Vehicle-toEverything (V2X) technologies are technically mature and widely demonstrated, yet large-scale deployment is constrained mainly by non-technical rather than communication or power-electronics limits. This paper targets the wireless communications community and frames V2G as a 5G-enabled smart grid vertical, linking business, governance, social, and infrastructure barriers to concrete communication-system requirements. Building on a PRISMA-guided systematic review of 974 V2G/V2X publications (2009–2025), and 162 implementation-critical studies, we adopt a four-domain framework of non-technical barriers: Business/Economic, Governance/Policy, Social, and Infrastructure/Ecosystem. Temporal and regional analyses show a shift from technical dominance to multidisciplinary integration after 2021. We translate these domains into communication requirements for V2G verticals, including fine-grained metering and settlement, protocol interoperability (e.g., ISO 15118, OCPP), privacy-by-design data governance, latency- and reliabilitydifferentiated services, and edge–cloud partitioning for flexibility control. The results demonstrate that 5G design for V2G cannot be a purely technical optimization task and must integrate socio-technical constraints from the outset, suggesting research directions for sustainable, data-driven V2G communication architectures. Index Terms—Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G); Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X); 5G; Smart grid verticals; Non-technical barriers; Sociotechnical systems; Sustainable mobility; Communication networks; PRISMA systematic review. I. INTRODUCTION Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and broader Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technologies have emerged as key enablers of lowcarbon power systems and smart cities, allowing electric vehicles not only to decarbonize transport but also to provide flexibility and storage to electricity networks facing high renewable penetration and evolving resiliency demands [1], [2] . Although considerable technical progress has been achieved in device interoperability, communication protocols, bidirectional charging, and battery management, large-scale deployment remains constrained less by engineering limits than by nontechnical challenges such as business feasibility, regulatory readiness, user acceptance, and ecosystem coordination [3]–[5] . Why now? With 974 V2G/V2X studies published between 2009 and 2025, technical solutions abound, yet deployment trajectories are fragmented and often stall after pilots, indicating that non-technical barriers now dominate the bottleneck. Analyzing these factors is timely as Europe commercializes V2G mainly through pilots, several Asian countries focus on infrastructure scaling, and global standards mature, revealing implementation gaps that this line of work addresses [1], [3],[4] . In parallel, V2G is increasingly positioned as a 5G-enabled smart grid vertical within IoT-based energy and mobility systems, making it essential to understand how socio-technical barriers translate into communication-system requirements. This article builds on a companion systematic review published in Energies [6], which develops a four-domain sociotechnical framework, transition levers, and non-technical key performance indicators (KPIs) for V2G deployment bas

FAQs

Why is large-scale V2G deployment constrained despite technical maturity?

Deployment is limited mainly by non-technical factors such as business feasibility, regulatory readiness, user acceptance, and ecosystem coordination rather than by communication or power-electronics engineering limits.

What four-domain framework is used to structure non-technical barriers?

The paper adopts four domains: Business/Economic, Governance/Policy, Social, and Infrastructure/Ecosystem, and uses them to connect socio-technical barriers to communication requirements.

How are non-technical barriers translated into communication-system requirements for 5G V2G?

The mapping covers fine-grained metering and settlement, protocol interoperability (e.g., ISO 15118, OCPP), privacy-by-design data governance, latency- and reliability-differentiated services, and edge–cloud partitioning to enable flexibility control.

Jul 16, 2026

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