These 2024 GM EVs can power your home during a blackout using bidirectional charging

[Cal Jeffrey]

Is it a battery or a truck? Who needs a power generator during severe weather when you own a Chevy Silverado? Yes, coming soon to GM vehicles near you is "Vehicle-to-Home" (V2H) technology. Cheeky remarks aside, this feature will allow owners of compatible cars or trucks to draw power to their homes during outages.

On Tuesday, General Motors announced it would soon equip select GM electric vehicles with bidirectional charging – a feature it calls "V2H." The initial 2024 lineup will include Chevrolet Silverado EV RST, GMC Sierra EV Denali Edition 1, Chevrolet Blazer EV, Chevrolet Equinox EV, Cadillac LYRIQ, and the just revealed 2025 Cadillac Escalade IQ.

The innovation is the latest product in GM Energy's power management lineup. Bidirectional charging means that the same interface owners use to charge their cars from their home's power supply can also reverse current to provide the house with limited emergency electricity from the EV's battery during a power outage. Users can also selectively activate it during peak demand days to offset their drain on the energy grid, the most common cause of brownouts in some areas.

"GM Energy's growing ecosystem of energy management solutions will help accelerate GM's vision of an all-electric future by further expanding access to even more benefits that EVs can offer," said GM Energy Vice President Wade Sheffer. "By integrating V2H across our entire Ultium-based portfolio, we are making this groundbreaking technology available to more consumers, with benefits that extend well beyond the vehicle itself and at broader scale than ever before."

Of course, a prerequisite of the feature is GM's Ultium Home Energy Management System (sold separately), which requires wired installation into the home. This caveat could be a deal breaker for those renting their residence or who don't want to shell out for a home charger. However, this is a typical side purchase offered by other manufacturers like Tesla that many opt-in to for convenience.

It also requires the GM Energy Cloud software platform. The company's press release did not mention whether or not the Energy Cloud services are free or subscription-based. Its website didn't shed much light on that question either, but judging by the ongoing subscription trend in the automotive industry, it's probably best to expect a pay-as-you-go service model.

Although the initial vehicle rollout is limited, GM expects to have all its Ultium-based EVs equipped with V2H by 2026. As new vehicle production deadlines draw near, the company promises more information about additional compatible vehicles.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/99748-select-2024-gm-evs-can-power-home-during.html

 

[Neatfeatguy]

All those folks charging their EVs and causes a black out....but don't worry folks, you can simply power your home with the EV you just charged before causing a black out!

Everyone's a winner!

 

[toooooot]

Could it last say 5 hours without feeding air conditioning/heating which I assume will use the most electricity?

 

[RudyBob]

It's a good idea. It would be a better idea if they would do this for a gasoline/diesel vehicle.

 

[scavengerspc]

All those folks charging their EVs and causes a black out....but don't worry folks, you can simply power your home with the EV you just charged before causing a black out!

Everyone's a winner!

Never happen. That's why you think it could.

Could it last say 5 hours without feeding air conditioning/heating which I assume will use the most electricity?

Easy to figure out. Find how many kilowatts the vehicle has, then to determine your needs total everything using power.

Central air 3500 watts.
Lighting say its all LED so maybe 100 watts in an evening.
If electric water tank maybe a 3000 watt draw but its best to shut that down during outages.
Of course, those things don't run constantly so, there's that.

But if you're the average US home, your draw per day is around 35 kW.
So if you have a F150 Lightning and the battery is at 90% you have approx. 120 kW.

So the average US home can draw off the truck for 3.5 days if it's a consistent load +\-

EDIT - I just read that the Silverado will come with up to 200 kWh battery.
If you get it to 90% before a storm, or Zombie uprising, you have up to 5 days at the average draw figure.

 

[godrilla]

Can you drive an ev in a black out once it runs out of juice? Wouldn't a tesla solar with backup home battery be ideal in a black out for the home and the ev?

 

[Endymio]

But if you're the average US home, your draw per day is around 35 kW.
So if you have a F150 Lightning and the battery is at 90% you have approx. 120 kW.

So the average US home can draw off the truck for 3.5 days ..

I believe you mean kW-hr, not kW. And you also need to take into account conversion losses, which -- assuming they're equal in both directions -- would would range from 15% up to as much as 40%.

 

[scavengerspc]

I believe you mean kW-hr, not kW.

No, I meant kWh

Glossary:Kilowatt hours (KWh) - Statistics Explained

ec.europa.eu

What is the difference between kW and kWh?

What is the difference between kW and kWh? A lot of persons including professionals don’t fully understand the difference between kW and kWh. As much as these two units of measurement sound alike, …

havenhillsynergy.com

And it's as simple as I didn't have my anal-retentive shoes on.
In fact, kW is accepted in final design architectural blueprints that become public record.

And you also need to take into account conversion losses, which -- assuming they're equal in both directions -- would would range from 15% up to as much as 40%.

It's actually far less than that, I saw it in action last February, and the reason
I wrote "+\-" and "up to"
I wrote both but that was apparently not worth mentioning.

Reading Is Fundamental - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/02/07/ev-battery-power-your-home/

"An alternative is in the driveway. A typical EV stores about 67 kWh in its battery, more than three days’ worth of electricity, sitting unused"

EDIT - They assume the average usage as 20 kW per day, though in the US it's right around 35.

How Many kWh Per Day Is Normal? Average 1-6 Person Home kWh Usage

It is useful to know how many kWh a house uses per day. It might be that you just want to know the average kWh daily usage to see how much you will pay for electricity, or you might be thinking about how to size solar panels adequately. Here is how homeowners phrase these types ... Read more

learnmetrics.com

 

[wiyosaya]

Not a selling point for me, but a nice-to-have if I were to consider one of these vehicles. Power outages are fairly rare where I live.

No, I meant kWh

Same thing, different way of writing it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilowatt-hour

Other representations of the unit may be encountered:

"kW⋅h" and "kW h" are less commonly used, but they are consistent with the SI. The SI brochure[6] states that in forming a compound unit symbol, "Multiplication must be indicated by a space or a half-high (centred) dot (⋅), since otherwise some prefixes could be misinterpreted as a unit symbol." This is supported by a voluntary standard[7] issued jointly by an international (IEEE) and national (ASTM) organization, and by a major style guide.[8] However, the IEEE/ASTM standard allows "kWh" (but does not mention other multiples of the watt-hour). One guide published by NIST specifically recommends against "kWh" "to avoid possible confusion".[9]
The United States official fuel-economy window sticker for electric vehicles uses the abbreviation "kW-hrs".[10]
Variations in capitalization are sometimes encountered: KWh, KWH, kwh, etc., which are inconsistent with the International System of Units.
The notation "kW/h" for the kilowatt-hour is incorrect, as it denotes kilowatt per hour.

 

[scavengerspc]

Not a selling point for me, but a nice-to-have if I were to consider one of these vehicles. Power outages are fairly rare where I live.


Same thing, different way of writing it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilowatt-hour

Yeah actually there are quite a few ways people write it and I have never heard any argument about it. Until Endy made it a point of anality!
Thought it is still taught as kWh.

 

[Hollow]

Will be useful the day when battery charge cycle number won't matter anymore, else you are probably just prematurely killing your battery.

 

[nulll]

Realistically "Ultium" is already dead, GM has effectively had their "net burst" moment with pouch batteries so I'm not really sure what they're referring to as "Ultium" anymore . GM has been moving away from the pouch cell type batteries that were the core of "Ultium" since late 2022 as their battery provider LG Chem have consistently had the highest failure rates in the industry. This is why Chevy Bolts older Tesla's and a lot of BYD plug in hybrids keep catching on fire. Currently GM are moving away from the NMC chemistry pouches toward the Tesla/Panasonic 4680 cylindrical cells based on LiFePO4 chemistry. Their provider will most likely be either Samsung, Panasonic or possibly LG (if their partnership is salvageable).

This may turn out to be nothing more than a direct collaboration with Tesla eventually as neither GM, Ford nor BMW (another recent addition to the cylindrical cell congregation) are in a position to shoulder the cost of reinventing a wheel that is already well tested. Presuming these companies can vault their egos we might forego a quagmire of varying industry standards in this space. The Tesla "Virtual power plant" model is a great concept that any manufacturer could enable within a standardized arrangement allowing the average consumer a plethora of options regarding democratizing their home energy needs. Every home a power plant and fuel station while adding endless redundancy to the grid is where this could and should end up. Obviously for folks living in dense urban areas in Condos and such this isn't gonna be the case but highly redundant grid infrastructure is fairly ubiquitous in those areas anyway.

Currently BMW is looking at 4690 and 46120 cell architectures which while novel makes little sense considering the unnecessary additional manufacturing. With Tesla's upcoming switch (new model 3 and Cybertruck) to 4680 cells with M3P batteries provided by CATL (possibly produced in house or by Panasonic under license) it is a great time to move toward the 4680 standard, also they're capable of being a structural part of the pack while pouch cells simply cannot be a structural member.

 

[sorten]

Could it last say 5 hours without feeding air conditioning/heating which I assume will use the most electricity?

Obviously depends on the size of your EV battery and your usage. Since I have solar providing most of my electricity needs during the day, a small 60 kWh battery in the Bolt would last me most of the month. That assumes the excess generation during the day would go back into the EV battery. I expect that's a feature of V2H software/hardware.

 

[sorten]

Can you drive an ev in a black out once it runs out of juice? Wouldn't a tesla solar with backup home battery be ideal in a black out for the home and the ev?

Can you pump gas in a blackout? I assume if you're experiencing a large-scale power outage you have two options: shelter in place, in which case there's no need to be driving around, or drive out of the service area so you have access to power. The EV covers both scenarios.

The Tesla backup is AN option. Whether or not it's ideal for you depends on if you want to pay the premium for the brand.

 

[sorten]

Will be useful the day when battery charge cycle number won't matter anymore, else you are probably just prematurely killing your battery.

Most EV batteries should be usable to 400K or 500K miles. If you're in an area with such frequent blackouts (Texas? LOL) then you might want to move to a state that can manage its grid. Living in So Cal here, and don't remember the last time we lost power. It's been several years at least.

 

[Godel]

The items you'd really want to keep going are your fridge and freezers.

If the outage looked like lasting for days and if you had any brains, you'd turn all your extraneous electrical junk off and adjust the temp on your air conditioning to minimize use.

BTW, how much extra does it cost to wire your house to utilize this facility?

 

[sorten]

Realistically "Ultium" is already dead, GM has effectively had their "net burst" moment with pouch batteries so I'm not really sure what they're referring to as "Ultium" anymore . GM has been moving away from the pouch cell type batteries that were the core of "Ultium" since late 2022 as their battery provider LG Chem have consistently had the highest failure rates in the industry. This is why Chevy Bolts older Tesla's and a lot of BYD plug in hybrids keep catching on fire. Currently GM are moving away from the NMC chemistry pouches toward the Tesla/Panasonic 4680 cylindrical cells based on LiFePO4 chemistry. Their provider will most likely be either Samsung, Panasonic or possibly LG (if their partnership is salvageable).

It doesn't sound like you're current on the topic. GM's Ultium platform is brand new and has nothing to do with the Bolt battery problems. AFAIK the Cadillac LYRIC is the first volume GM product built on the Ultium platform, and I doubt many are on the road at this point.

Site Maintenance

 

[Endymio]

Yeah actually there are quite a few ways people write it and I have never heard any argument about it. Until Endy made it a point of anality!
Thought it is still taught as kWh.

It's not a "point of anality". You're confusing two entirely different things: kW is a unit of power, whereas kW-hr (or kWh) is a unit of energy: two units that are as different as night and day.

A statement that "a battery holds 60 kW" is like saying "Chicago is 600 miles/hr from New York." or that "John is 6 feet per second tall."

 

[Endymio]

If you're in an area with such frequent blackouts (Texas? LOL) then you might want to move to a state that can manage its grid. Living in So Cal here, and don't remember the last time we lost power.

Oops! California is already asking residents to not charge EVs during certain peak periods -- and this is with EVs making up only about 7% of the total vehicles in the state:

"Aug, 2022: owners of electric vehicles are being asked to avoid charging during peak energy usage hours in an effort to protect California's power grid."

MSN

 

[scavengerspc]

It's not a "point of anality". You're confusing two entirely different things: kW is a unit of power, whereas kW-hr (or kWh) is a unit of energy: two units that are as different as night and day.

A statement that "a battery holds 60 kW" is like saying "Chicago is 600 miles/hr from New York." or that "John is 6 feet per second tall."

And I already told you and hope to not need to again, just typing kW is perfectly acceptable in place of kWh. EVERYONE in my industry (I'm an Architect) knows what I mean. I told you that. I posted links on why I just type kW. I just felt like doing it and nothing more.
And lastly, the math I provided is spot on for expected time frames based on the draw\battery capacity and the math was based on kWh. What will it take to make you see you nick picked that with no basis? I just typed what I typed, I was not trying to win any literary awards.

A battery that holds 60 kW will supply 60000 watts.
A small heater that uses 1000 watts will run for 60 hours on 60 kW.
If you ran that heater and nothing else on household current from the power station for 60 hours, on the electric bill you would be charged 60 kWh.

1000 watt drain for 60 hours is 60 kWh.

A battery that holds 60 kWh will power 1000 watts for 60 hours.
A battery that holds 60 kWh will power 10000 watts for 6 hours.

A battery that holds 60 kW will still power 1000 watts for 60 hours.
A battery that holds 60 kW will still power 10000 watts for 6 hours.

And yes there will still be a small +\-

EDIT - And if I may, I'm sorry man but your statement "example" was beyond the meaning of the word oblivious.
I'm quite sure that kW vs. kWh is explained on every electric bill, so please read it.

 

[Endymio]

just typing kW is perfectly acceptable in place of kWh. EVERYONE in my industry (I'm an Architect) knows what I mean... What will it take to make you see you nick picked that with no basis?

You're still not getting it. If you see "kW" on an architectural diagram for wiring, a transfer panel, or anything else -- it's talking about its power capacity. Not energy. That's why you see "kW" so often-- they're using the correct term in the correct manner. I'm sorry, but no architectural diagram has ever confused the two. If you want to dispute that, post an image to the contrary.

This isn't "nick [sic] picking". Nearly every article I've ever seen about nuclear, solar, or wind power, the reporter confuses power vs. energy at some point, usually with ludicrous results.

 

[nulll]

It doesn't sound like you're current on the topic. GM's Ultium platform is brand new and has nothing to do with the Bolt battery problems. AFAIK the Cadillac LYRIC is the first volume GM product built on the Ultium platform, and I doubt many are on the road at this point.

Site Maintenance

GM began the process of changing cell providers late last fall (2022) after the continued faults and failures of LG chemicals pouch type cells that were the back bone of "Ultium". The platform isn't new so to speak as it was at the heart of the Hummer EV which has been on sale for over a year and has been a sales disaster. This is what I meant about not being sure what GM is even referring to as "Ultium" any longer. The page you linked from GM is no longer what "Ultium" supposedly is as GM publicly stated that they're changing to 4680 cylindrical cells for their EV efforts moving forward during quarter 1. "Ultium" was supposed to be as the page you linked stated about flexibility and adaptability to the needs of multiple platforms from massive vehicles like the Hummer EV down to the forthcoming recently resurrected Bolt.

GM Is Ordering a Massive Overhaul With Its EV Batteries: Report

General Motors may move its new Ultium battery-electric architecture from pouch to cylindrical cell batteries.

www.thedrive.com

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2023/07/heres-how-many-gmc-hummer-ev-units-were-built-in-june-2023/

For comparison Tesla sells similar numbers of the Model X in a quarter to what the Hummer EV has sold in over 2 years! Also the Hummer EV costs GM in excess of 100K USD per unit while the Model X has a margin between 15-19%. I'd cite another comparable vehicle but to be quite frank there aren't any. BMW iX kinda but the sales there aren't great either and the Mercedes and Rivian ESUV's simply haven't been out long enough to have a decent data set, though both look promising.

At this point GM's entire "Ultium" platform is nothing more than marketing buzz words and obfuscation while they hurriedly swap to proven battery tech before the shareholders realize what happened. They have pulled a literal bait and switch regarding investors, though that doesn't appear to have been the intent as the simple math of it is that it appears the GM is in the red to the tune of at least 90% margin wise on each Hummer EV and that translates directly over to the Escalade EV as well as the Silverado EV. They have no other choice than to swap out for a proven and scalable battery technology.

 

[scavengerspc]

You're still not getting it. If you see "kW" on an architectural diagram for wiring, a transfer panel, or anything else -- it's talking about its power capacity. Not energy. That's why you see "kW" so often-- they're using the correct term in the correct manner. I'm sorry, but no architectural diagram has ever confused the two. If you want to dispute that, post an image to the contrary.

This isn't "nick [sic] picking". Nearly every article I've ever seen about nuclear, solar, or wind power, the reporter confuses power vs. energy at some point, usually with ludicrous results.

You still don't understand, so this will be it.

I didn't care about how I wrote it, hell I even mixed them up because I was sure everyone would get it when I provided the math. My math is spot on and that is what I was leading to.

And you are dead wrong about the plans. There are just as many diagrams that use kWh as there are kW. They are interchanged often. I read and have drawn up probably a thousand or more over the last 30 years. Most recently because of the inclusion of renewables.
In fact, kWh was really introduced by power companies for billing. Most feel because they wanted to muddy the waters of the billing process.
Some public blueprints can be found where the service panel is written in kW or kWh instead of amps for some damn reason. Yet even that is an accepted variation of the same thing.
You are arguing with facts.

EDIT - And why would you zing me when I wrote "nick pick" instead of nit? An obvious typo,
while you first said "kW-hr" and I let that go.

By the way, I'm headed out to the mountains for a few days or so. I can read TS on my phone, but I hate using it to post, so you get the last word. For now.

 

[mailpup]

...so you get the last word. For now.

No, sorry. That will be enough of this silly argument. Go to PM if you must continue. Thank you.

 

[scavengerspc]

No, sorry. That will be enough of this silly argument. Go to PM if you must continue. Thank you.

Honestly, I couldn't agree more.

Nice rest of the weekend to everyone.