Non-Technical Barriers and Transition Pathways for Vehicle-to-Grid: A Systematic Review of 974 Studies and a Socio-Technical Framework

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) can provide flexibility and storage for low-carbon power systems while supporting sustainable mobility, yet real-world deployment remains largely confined to pilots despite substantial technical progress. This article presents a PRISMA-guided systematic review of 974 V2G/V2X studies published between 2009 and 2025 to explain why implementation lags and how it can be accelerated. Within this corpus, a total of 162 implementation-critical articles are identified and, within these, 95 studies that primarily address non-technical dimensions such as policy, markets, user behavior, and ecosystem coordination. Drawing on full-text coding, a four-domain socio-technical framework is developed that clusters recurring non-technical barriers and enablers into business–economic, governance–policy, social, and infrastructure and ecosystem domains. The analysis reveals (i) a temporal shift from technical dominance to multidisciplinary acceleration after 2021; (ii) distinct regional priorities in which Europe emphasizes regulation and business models, Asia focuses on infrastructure scaling, and the Americas on frequency services and resilience; and (iii) persistent revenue uncertainty, regulatory gaps, user resistance, and grid unreadiness as cross-cutting obstacles. For each domain, concrete transition levers and indicative deployment key performance indicators (KPIs) are derived, such as multi-actor revenue-sharing mechanisms, aggregator recognition in market rules, privacy-by-design user participation models, and targeted bidirectional charging deployment in constrained grids. Synthesizing these insights, three archetypal V2G transition pathways are proposed—regulation-led, infrastructure-first, and service-driven—that reflect regional conditions and offer alternative routes to large-scale adoption. The framework and roadmap provide researchers, policymakers, system operators, and mobility providers with an integrated basis for designing, monitoring, and evaluating V2G policies, business models, and pilots in line with energy system decarbonization goals.