GM Energy just debuted vehicle-to-home (V2H) bidirectional EV chargers – here’s how GM’s EVs will keep the lights on.
Once installed, GM Energy’s home EV chargers will enable customers to send power from a compatible GM EV to their home in the face of increasing power outages across the US.
Customers can purchase GM Energy’s V2H bundle through current GM mobile brand apps. It’s initially rolling out in five states – California, Florida, Michigan, New York, and Texas – with plans to expand over time.
At $7,299, the bundle doesn’t come cheap. It consists of the GM Energy Powershift Charger at $1,699, and GM Energy V2H Enablement Kit at $5,600. Installation costs and taxes won’t be included and will vary, depending on a home’s existing setup and other things. GM has partnered with home EV charging installer Qmerit.
But it’s comparable to other battery storage costs – a Powerwall costs $11,500 with a solar installation through Tesla – and GM’s system eliminates the need to install battery storage.
With an enormous 200 kWh battery pack that can provide up to 10.2kW of power flow, the electric pickup is capable of powering an entire house for 21 days.
I don’t know of many houses that use only 200kWh over 21 days. I am frugal as heck with electricity, but even I use 600-750kWh/month in the winter and 1400-1750kWh/month in the summer.
That would work for me. On average I used 8-10 kwh/day before getting EVs to charge.
I have a well insulated and sealed house with NG heat (although the furnace fan is ~500w). I also have passive solar thermal on the south side of my house.
I have no A/C, since I have lots of southwest and west shade trees.
Of course it would actually be dumb to take a fully charged car and completely drain it down unless it was an extreme emergency.
Of course, that assumes you have the Silverado completely filled at all times before an outage can occur. Most EV manufacturers, who use traditional LIon batteries recommend not keeping battery full for long period of time (hours), they recommend 30-80% for best battery health. The ones that use LFP batteries do recommend filling to 100% periodically. I don’t think Silverado uses LFP batteries.
In any case, the article (ad?) is targeting typical people, and typical people use a little under 1000 kWh per month per recent statistics. And in places where homes tend to be all electric (like mine), they use a bit more.