Torrential rain began pounding William Perrella’s home in Houston last Sunday, waking him up in the middle of the night. Outside, he saw trees bending and twisting in the wind. Inside, the lights started flickering. He knew his home was about to go dark.
But since Perrella, a digital forensics analyst, owns an electric Kia EV6, he was able to power critical appliances in his home. The refrigerator was hooked up to the car and so was his deep freezer, ensuring that food didn’t go bad when it was calamitous outside.
Perrella's situation was better than many Southeast Texans, who endured the wrath of Hurricane Beryl that ripped through the region last week.
Get Fully Charged
EVs are giant power banks on wheels.
An EV can not only swallow huge amounts of electrons at charging stations, but also dispense that energy to power external devices and in some cases, entire homes. This can be crucial during power outages, while camping or at construction sites.
Beryl was the latest storm to hammer the Texas Gulf Coast, leaving at least 13 people dead and over 2 million residents without power for days amid scorching summer temperatures and extreme weather. But electric vehicle owners told InsideEVs that their cars helped them meet their basic needs and stay relatively comfortable.
Approximately 210,000 EVs were registered in Texas as of June, according to the Alternative Fuels Data Center. The state ranks third behind California at 1.1 million EV registrations and Florida at 230,000 EV registrations. It also has some 3,300 public Level 2 and DC fast-charging stations with nearly 10,000 charging ports combined.
With the widespread power outage in the aftermath of Beryl, many of these charging stations went dark. That included several Electrify America stations and Tesla Superchargers that were temporarily down. The Weather Channel reported that several gas stations were out of power too, as pumping gas also requires electricity. And the gas stations that did have power witnessed painfully long lines.
On the other hand, some EV owners said they charged their vehicles in advance to use them as backup generators for their homes.
“My EV6 was better than a gas generator for a number of reasons,” Perrella said. “It was running in the garage, with the door closed, there were no toxic fumes to inhale and the system was completely silent. I did not need to run out and get gas so we avoided those long lines."
Bidirectional Charging Saves The Day
Bidirectional charging isn’t new to electric cars, but it hasn’t grabbed much attention yet. The feature allows owners to use their EV’s battery as a portable power bank to run external appliances and devices. This can be useful in situations like blackouts caused due to natural disasters, during camping, or at construction sites.
Not all EVs are capable of bidirectional charging. Models that support it include the Nissan Leaf, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Ford F-150 Lightning and various General Motors EVs equipped with Ultium batteries. All of those can power external devices. Teslas, except for the Cybertruck, don't offer this feature yet but are expected to in 2025. CEO Elon Musk announced the feature would be added realizing that owners were using it more often than previously estimated.
Currently, EVs commonly put out 120 volts and 15 amps, enough to power most home appliances such as an electric kettle, a coffee maker, a vacuum cleaner or even your laptop. This function is known as vehicle-to-load (V2L). More specific types of bidirectional charging include vehicle-to-home (V2H), vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V).
Getting basic V2L to work is pretty simple. All you have to do is plug the V2L adapter that comes with your EV (or can be purchased separately) into the charging port and connect the other end into extension cords or directly into the appliance.
That ended up being a godsend for many storm-affected Texans recently.
Less Juice Used Than You Think
“Running only the critical appliances in the home, we could have made it more than a week before the battery in the car ran out of juice,” Perrella said. “I charged my car to 100% before the storm hit and after 24 hours, I had 91% remaining battery.”
But power consumption may vary for different EV owners depending on energy losses and the individual appliances.
Christian Reading, a senior IT manager at an oil and gas company in Katy, a small town west of Houston, is a big fan of electric cars. He said he especially loves those made by Hyundai and Kia. He was previously the owner of the original Hyundai Ioniq Electric and three Kona Electrics. Now he owns three Kia EV6s and a Tesla Model 3.
He said the power outage lasted only three hours at his home. But during those three hours, life continued as normal. “Using several extension cords, I connected a fan, made breakfast with a griddle and a toaster and switched on the television to watch the news about the hurricane,” Reading said.
In three hours, the Kia consumed about 1.5% of its charge with appliances like the refrigerator plugged in. With three EV6s in his garage fully charged, he had more than enough backup energy.
However, Reading said his electric crossovers can’t power devices with higher consumption. “Our home air conditioning systems are very large and they pull a lot of current,” he said. “V2L is only enough for appliances, lights and fans but cannot supply 240 volts that larger systems require.”
That’s true at the moment. The Hyundai Motor Group's 800-volt Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) underpinning the Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6 and Kia's EV6 has been engineered to support 240 volts of output, but a Wallbox charger allowing that isn’t available in the U.S. yet.
That, however, changes with the Kia EV9. Kia has confirmed that the EV9 will offer V2L, V2H and V2G capabilities when a special charger becomes available. That said, the current Hyundai and Kia models output 3.6 kW and 16 amps, enough to trickle-charge another EV, power an e-bike and run most household appliances.
Electric trucks can take care of larger, power-hungry systems. The Ford F-150 Lightning and the Tesla Cybertruck can both output 240 volts and supply up to 9.6 kW. The Chevy Silverado EV, with its 200+ kWh battery pack can power an average home for up to 21 days.
Cost Advantage
If you have an EV that supports bidirectional charging, it doesn’t make sense to invest in gas generators, Reading said.
The cost of generators depends on the size of the home, the number of rooms you wish to have backup power for and the number of appliances. According to some estimates, a whole-home generator typically costs between $5,000 and $25,000. Smaller, portable generators cost far less.
On top of that, installation and maintenance costs can be thousands of dollars more, depending on where you live, local labor costs and the type of generator you’re installing.
“You might use it once a year for one day, you have to buy a service contract, change the oil periodically, get it recertified and hope that it'll work when you need it to,” Reading said. “It's a whole host of things you have to take care of.” With an EV, you just need the V2L feature and some extension cords.
For a better V2H set-up, you need a transfer box, which according to Consumer Reports can cost between $500 and $1,500, including installation. That’s exactly what one Kia EV6 owner, who declined to offer his name but posted extensively about his experiences on Reddit, had installed in his home.
He had a transfer switch, a device that allows you to safely connect backup power sources, like a solar generator, to the home's electrical system. He said both his EV6 and a solar generator are integrated into the transfer switch.
With this combination, he was able to power his refrigerator, television, window air conditioner, lights and the internet. He added that the battery was using roughly 10% of its charge daily and could have easily lasted a week, before it automatically cuts off V2L at 20% remaining range.
“[The Kia EV6] provides me with the capacity equivalent of five Powerwalls, that I also happen to drive daily,” he said, referring to Tesla's stationary lithium-ion battery backup system for homes. Powerwalls, in their stock configuration, can store about 13.5 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy. The Kia EV6 has a 77.4 kWh battery.
But even then, V2L and V2H are no magic bullets for solving the energy problem. At least not yet.
Challenges, Still
Making V2L work is easy for people who have dedicated driveways and garages. Barring the occasional extension cord running inside, apartment-dwellers may have a trickier time taking advantage of this technology.
Many EV owners still had the same issues as anyone else in Houston; several public charging stations were down due to the storm and owners said charging apps failed to notify them regarding power outages affecting chargers. Tesla Charging, Electrify America, and ChargePoint did not post any weather alerts on their social media channels either. (They posted service updates later.)
In other words, V2L is beneficial if your car is already charged up before disaster strikes. And that means advance planning is key.
So there’s a long way to go before energy distribution becomes seamless between your home and your EV. Even then, this is a glimpse into a future where EVs aren’t just sustainable modes of road transport. With the ability to power your homes and appliances, their capabilities extend way beyond that.
Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com
