GM wants its EVs to power homes in blackouts and feed the grid, though some balk at install costs

Instead of sitting idle during an outage, a GM electric vehicle could eventually serve as an emergency power source for the house.

That idea is part of GM's effort to stand out in the expanding push to use EVs as home batteries and grid assets, though some owners on a Reddit thread discussing the initiative said installation and infrastructure costs may be a serious hurdle.

What's happening?

A thread on r/electricvehicles centered on a Volts podcast about GM bringing bidirectional charging to more of its EV lineup and pairing it with a bundled home-energy system.

With that kind of setup, a vehicle battery could power a home during a blackout and, in some situations, send electricity back to the grid, acting as a virtual power plant. 

Some people in the Reddit discussion welcomed the move, including the original poster, who said it puts GM "ahead of Tesla."

Some questioned whether vehicle-to-home or vehicle-to-grid features are really more useful than a conventional standby generator or battery backup that can hook into the same type of inlet and whether the extra equipment would be worth the cost for typical households. GM's vehicle-to-home setup is priced at $6,299, down from $6,999, but then permits and installation costs can more than double the total investment. 

Many EVs and a small number of plug-in hybrids, like the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, can also directly supply backup power to a home in an outage through the same setup as a backup generator, without the costlier install, though the costlier install would unlock a much higher concurrent power draw to enable 240-volt appliances. The Outlander can even run on gasoline to recharge the battery while parked as a dedicated backup power feature. 

So there are middle grounds, but it's mainly about how much someone values the most advanced abilities. 

Why does it matter?

Treating an EV like a large battery could help a household keep key devices and appliances working when the grid goes down.

It might also lower power bills in places with time-of-use rates. One owner said they wished the system could "run AC or stove off the car at peak time-of-use rates" without requiring a separate home battery.

Using stored energy that way could help homeowners get more out of the electricity already sitting in the car while potentially trimming utility costs.

Meanwhile, an electric vehicle battery is far less polluting than a gas-powered generator for backup power, and it poses fewer health hazards. 

What's being done?

If bidirectional charging becomes more widespread and shared standards proliferate, householders will have more choices for backup energy supply. Reddit commenters said that the move might be a necessary one for GM.

"This is the type of move they need to stay relevant in the EV game," one suggested. "Change is abrewing."

In Europe, there are major initiatives to make bidirectional charging more common to bolster the grid and lower utility costs. 

The EV regulatory environment has been far less kind in the U.S., and one commenter complimented GM for staying the course with its EVs despite those challenges.

"Instead of folding like Honda did, GM continues," a poster wrote. "Really wish GM well, and hope that their battery business goes through."

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