Dr. Tim Meyer: “The electric car is a gift from the powertrain transition to the energy system” In Germany, the energy and transport transitions are too often treated as separate issues. However, electric vehicles could connect the two; as flexible electricity consumers, mobile storage units, and even active participants in the energy market. The technical prerequisites for intelligent and bidirectional charging are advancing – but regulation, grid infrastructure, and energy industry processes continue to lag behind. The current debate about new feed-in limitations for PV systems highlights this contradiction particularly well. For energy expert and author Dr. Tim Meyer, this issue remains one of the key challenges of the coming years. Meyer has spent more than 25 years examining the interplay of technology, economics, and politics within the energy transition. At the CharIN Testival & Conference Europe 2026, he will deliver a keynote titled “Bridging the gap: why supply and demand are out of sync – and how to fix it”, exploring the increasingly complex interplay of electricity supply, demand, and infrastructure. In an exclusive interview with electrive, Meyer explains why he considers the electric car a “sleeping giant” within the energy system, why bidirectional charging today fails less due to vehicle technology and more due to the structures of the energy industry. Beyond that, he outlines the bridges he believes Germany must now build in order to ensure the energy and transport transitions mutually support one another. Dr. Meyer, your keynote at the CharIN Testival is titled “Bridging the Gap.” Where exactly is this gap in Germany’s energy system? I would actually speak of three gaps. For too long, we have primarily pursued a power generation transition and expanded renewable energies. That was correct, but in doing so, we neglected three things. The first is electrification: if the power