One way electric cars can make life easier is if they have a V2L (vehicle to load) reverse charging feature.
In normal language this means you can run or charge batteries in 240V portable and fixed electrical devices big and small directly from your car, from as small a load as a travelling worker charging their laptop to as big a load as topping up the battery of another electric car.
Some examples of how V2L can be used include:
- Using your electric car to power a camp site eg: running a kettle to make tea, hair dryer, lights, induction cooktop and more
- Powering key home appliances near your garage/car park during a power outage eg: fridge.
- Tradies recharging electric power tools used for gardening and home handyman type work
- Recharging another electric car whose battery is empty, enough so that driver can make it to a fast charging location
At the moment the affordable sub-100K innovative electric car brands that have V2L capable models in Australia are in alphabetical order: BYD, Hyundai, Kia and MG.
The specific models from these brands are listed below with video examples of V2L use for each of them.
When I say sub $100K most of these V2L capable cars cost much less than that and some like the BYD Atto 3 and MG ZS EV (2022 onwards) cost around $50K driveway each.
At the moment you won’t get V2L from any electric car sold in Australia by other popular EV brands like Tesla, Polestar, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz or BMW
Personally if buying an electric car I would definitely put those with V2L functionality on my short list.
Warning: if you do have an electric car that supports V2L read the manual about it to make sure you don’t overload the socket or accidentally use all the cars battery down to 0%.
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