Can an EV really help power your home when the power goes out? It’s one of the biggest FAQs people have about electric cars — but the answer can be a bit confusing. It’s either a yes, with a but – or a no, with an unless. To find out which EVs can offer vehicle-to-home (V2H) tech to keep the lights on or even lower your energy bills, keep on reading.
UPDATE: a new Acura, and one you can ride hard and put away wet.
Modern EVs have big, efficient batteries capable of storing enough energy to power home for days. That can mean backup power during a storm or the ability to use stored energy during expensive peak hours and recharge again when kilowatts are cheap.
That’s all true – but only in theory. Because, while your EV might have a big battery, that doesn’t mean it has the special hardware and software that allow electricity to safely flow back out of the car baked in. Car companies call this vehicle-to-home (V2H) or bi-directional charging, and only a handful of models currently support it. That’s that, “yes, with a but” asterisk.
Yes, an EV can power your home, but it has to be one of these.
At RE+ 2025 earlier this month, Honda announced that its upcoming all-Honda–developed Acura RSX will feature bi-directional home charging, previewing a future where every new EV built on Honda’s own global EV platform will support both vehicle-to-home (V2H) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capabilities.
So, if you’re excited about the upcoming RSX or Honda’s 0 electric rides and want to take advantage of V2x tech, you don’t have much longer to wait. No word on pricing.
Ford made early headlines using its F-150 Lightning as a life-saving generator during winter ice storms and hurricanes, so it should come as no surprise that it’s included in this list. The best-selling electric truck in America can send up to 9.6 kW of power from its onboard batteries back to the house. More than enough to keep the lights on and the refrigerator running during an outage.
To make it work, you’ll need to install the Charge Station Pro (formerly called Intelligent Backup Power) home charger, the Home Integration System (HIS), which includes an inverter, a transfer switch, and a small battery to switch the system on, as well Ford’s Charge Station Pro 80A bi-directional charger (which comes free with the Extended Range F-150 Lightning, but costs about $1,300 otherwise).
All-in, you’re looking at about $5,000 in hardware, plus installation, to make it work.
With up to 300 miles of range and ultra-fast charging, the seven-passenger electric SUV from Kia has been a hot seller. And back in March, the Kia EV9 unlocked yet another new feature: vehicle-to-home charging.
When paired with the Quasar 2 bidirectional charger from Wallbox (and the associated Power Recovery Unit, or PRU), a fully-charged Kia EV9 can power a standard suburban home for three days. Longer, still, if you’re keeping the energy use low. The Wallbox Quasar 2 isn’t cheap, though – pricing starts at $6,440 (again, plus installation). For that price, you the PRU plus a wall-mounted 12 kW L2 charger with 12.8 kW of with discharge power on a split-phase system.
With the exception of the Chevy Brightdrop, GMC Hummer EV, and the hand-built, ultra-luxe Cadillac CELESTIQ, every Ultium-based GM EV can send battery power back to your home through GM Energy’s Ultium Home System – arguably the most fully integrated EV + battery backup + solar option out there outside of Tesla.
GM Energy says its new 19.2 kW Powershift Charger delivers around 6-7% more juice than a typical 11.5 kW L2 charger, delivering up to 51 miles of range per charge hour. Bi-directional charging requires the Powershift Charger to be paired up with a compatible GM EV and the GM Energy V2H Enablement Kit. The full system retails for $12,699, plus installation, and can be financed through GM Financial.
NOTE: some 2024 models might require a software update to enable V2H functionality, which can be done either at the dealer or through an OTA update.
Candian startup Taiga have been offering high-performance electric watercraft for several years now. For 2026, their third-gen offering features automotive-grade fast charging that will allow riders to plug into the same fast charging networks their electric cars and trucks use, getting them back in the water in 30 minutes or less.
That said, this isn’t an article about fast-charging your PWC. Taiga is incorporating bidirectional charging into all its electric watercraft as of 2026, turning the PWC EVs into a mobile energy resources that can recharge equipment at the dock, power hotel loads on larger yachts, or bring power to an off-grid cabin or campsite.
Tesla Cybertruck owners may have zero taste, but they have two options when it comes to powering their homes with their trucks. If they already have a Tesla Powerwall, they don’t need anything else. If they don’t, they’ll need to install a Universal Wall Connector charger, a Powershare Gateway, and a Tesla Backup Switch.
That second option will run about $3,500, plus installation.
That rounds off the list of vehicles that ship with V2H software baked in, so if you’re wondering whether or not your EV can be used to power your home, now you know the answer is yes, as long as it’s one of the ones listed here. But you might remember that I answered the initial question by saying it was either a yes, with a but – or a no, with an unless. So if you want to use your car’s battery as a backup, but don’t have one of the EVs listed above, that doesn’t mean you’re completely out of luck.
As some of the earliest and most enthusiastic EV adopters, Tesla fans have also been among the loudest advocates for using the energy stored their cars’ batteries to back up their homes — or even the grid itself. Unfortunately for them, the slow-selling Cybertruck is the only Tesla vehicle that officially supports bi-directional charging. If you’re one of the many Model 3 and Y owners frustrated by those delays, there’s good news: those vehicles are now capable of V2H charging thanks to an “impressive” Powerwall competitor, Sigenergy.
The good news doesn’t stop there, however. The Sigenergy V2X also works with both the popular Kia EV6 and Electrek‘s 2024 EV of the Year, the Volvo EX30 over the DIN70121 protocol, and several VW/Audi/Porsche and Mercedes-Benz EVs over the ISO15118-2 protocol.
Our own Editor-in-Chief, Fred Lambert, recently went on a Sigenergy deep dive with Sylvain Juteau, President of Roulez Electrique, and came away deeply impressed with the system. I’ve included the video, above, and you can read more about the system itself at this link.
Okay, time for my standard lecture on using an EV to power your home in an affordable manner. To power your home with an EV in a cheap manner, you do NOT need these expensive V2G systems. Instead you can install a cheap generator inlet and a cheap interlock system that forces you to disconnect from the grid before using the generator inlet. Any local electrician can install one (or DIY if you have the skills). Then just get an EV with a 240 Volt outlet, disconnect from the grid with the interlock system, and connect the EV’s 240 outlet to the generator inlet.
Dirt cheap V2H. Sadly, only EV trucks offer such 240 VAC outlets (Silverado EV, Tesla Cybertruck, GMC Sierra, and whatever RAM makes eventually, I presume. Please Encourage Slate to make such an option.)
And good solar PV & battery systems allow you to add such a generator inlet like Enphase Energy System Controllers.
The V2G systems mentioned in this article are very nice and many will allow you to participate in V2G VPP programs to make some money….but they way too expensive for most folks and the VPP program participation won’t cover the high cost.
And, of course, I look forward to learning about any V2H models or more universal battery backup systems from you, the smartest readers in the blogosphere, in the comments.
Original content from Electrek.
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I’ve been in and around the auto industry for over thirty years, and have written for a number of well-known outlets like CleanTechnica, Popular Mechanics, the Truth About Cars, and more. You can catch me at Electrek Daily’s Quick Charge, The Heavy Equipment Podcast, or chasing my kids around Oak Park, IL
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