EVs to Home: V2H Adoption Soars as Winter Blackouts Drive Demand

EVs are increasingly stepping into the role of backup generators during severe winter outages, with vehicle-to-home (V2H) capabilities now in about 14 models, including all of General Motors Co.’s (GM) line, and expected to be standard in new offerings from Tesla Inc., Rivian Automotive Inc., and others. US sales of EVs with bidirectional charging reached roughly 630,000, up from about one in five vehicles purchased in the past quarter. Ford’s 2024 F-150 Lightning, which connects to a home panel to automatically switch power during outages, saw usage quadruple last week, with an average of four activations per year. The feature is expected to become a table stakes selling point as energy resilience becomes a key differentiator in a grid under stress from extreme weather and rising data center demand.