Irish EV depots connect to flexibility markets; SPIRIT-E tests e-truck V2G

Four electrified-transport stories from October 28 to 30, 2026: Irish delivery depots are being connected to the grid's flexibility markets, a German consortium fed power from an electric truck's battery back into the grid at up to 350 kW, BETA Technologies completed 14 electric flights in Florida, and LiveWire flagged substantial doubt that it can continue as a going concern.

Irish fleet depots connect to the flexibility markets

Delivery depots run by An Post and DHL Express Ireland are being connected to Ireland's electricity flexibility markets, VIOTAS and its partners announced in a release dated October 28, 2026, which calls it the first time EV fleet depots have been connected directly to those markets. The pilot sites in Cork and Galway (An Post) and Dublin (DHL) take in 211 electric vehicles, 181 charging points and up to half a megawatt of flexible demand.

The flexibility is in the timing. The depots shift charging in response to conditions on the power system, away from periods of grid stress, while still getting the vehicles charged in time to go on the road, per the release. VIOTAS provides the access to EirGrid's flexibility markets.

Up to half a megawatt spread across 181 charging points comes to under 3 kW each, by our arithmetic: a dimmer on depot charging rather than a power plant. Mitsui Ireland's Shane Mullarkey called EV fleets "a powerful distributed battery resource" and mentioned vehicle-to-grid technologies, but the release describes the pilot as moving when charging happens and puts no figure on what the depots earn. An ARENA-funded JET Charge trial in Australia goes further: REVS2 plans to deploy up to 130 vehicles and bidirectional chargers across the ACT Government fleet.

SPIRIT-E: an electric truck feeds the depot and the grid

The three-year SPIRIT-E research project has closed, and its headline result is an electric truck that fed power back at up to 350 kW, in results the consortium led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) published on October 30, 2026. At the Schmid freight forwarding company in Regensburg, a truck with 480 kWh of usable battery capacity fed electricity back through a bidirectional DC charging station, supplying other vehicles, the company's premises and the public grid. At that rate the battery would empty in under an hour and a half, by our arithmetic, which is the difference between power and energy in one truck.

The truck was a MAN eTGX, and MAN says it is now working to bring the feature into series production. TUM's accompanying research, drawing in part on driving data from six German heavy-duty fleets, found that smart integration with the grid and electricity market cut the fleets' total costs by an average of 1.7 cents per km, and by 6.1 cents with bidirectional charging. The project team estimates that using the stored electricity at the depot could cut energy costs by around 10%, which TUM equates to the energy cost of 10,000 km for a truck driving 100,000 km a year. MAN's release cites internal project calculations of about 10% on average and up to 20% under optimal conditions, and says bidirectional charging is particularly attractive below 100,000 km a year, so TUM's example truck sits right at the edge of MAN's sweet spot.

The remaining hurdles, per TUM, lie less in the hardware than in grid integration and the economic framework: many depots lack the grid connection capacity to charge larger electric truck fleets, and there are no uniform standards for marketing the electricity stored in truck batteries.

BETA flies 14 eIPP flights across Florida

BETA Technologies' all-electric ALIA CTOL has completed 14 flights covering nearly 700 nautical miles across Florida under the DOT and FAA eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), BETA said on October 30, 2026. BETA is a partner in the Florida Department of Transportation's project; routes include St. Pete-Clearwater International and Albert Whitted Airport to Tampa International. The Albert Whitted leg follows the route of the world's first scheduled commercial airline flight, which Tony Jannus flew in 1914, per BETA.

The aircraft lean on the ground network. BETA's chargers are online at nine Florida sites, its largest charging network in the US, and it has an agreement with the state transportation department to supply 34 chargers and thermal management systems. They use the Combined Charging System standard, so any CCS-compliant electric vehicle, "in the air or on the ground," can charge at them, per the release. In earlier operations with Republic Airways along the I-4 corridor, chief executive Kyle Clark said, the aircraft and network supported up to nine flights a day at under $17 in energy per flight. BETA says it takes part in seven of the eight eIPP programs, including North Carolina's, where it has flown simulated medical deliveries; its vertical-takeoff A250 received an FAA market-survey certificate on October 21.

LiveWire warns of going-concern doubt

LiveWire Group, the electric motorcycle maker whose majority shareholder is Harley-Davidson, said on October 29, 2026 that conditions raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern within one year after its September 30 financial statements are issued, in third-quarter results furnished to the SEC. It also withdrew its guidance of a $70 million to $80 million operating loss for 2026.

Sales grew; the cash did not. Third-quarter revenue rose 38% to $7.9 million and electric motorcycle sales rose to 241 units from 184, while the net loss was $18.6 million. Cash fell to $39.9 million at September 30 from $82.8 million at the end of 2025, against a related-party term loan carried at $76.8 million net, and the release cites a debt maturity in December 2027.

The shake-up came before the numbers. Chief executive Karim Donnez resigned on October 21, per a Form 8-K, the board formed a special restructuring committee on October 22, and on October 25 the committee appointed Roy Gallagher of Ankura as chief restructuring officer and principal executive officer. LiveWire agreed to pay Ankura $140,000 a month for his services.