Speaker 1: Earlier this year, a California bill was introduced that would require all electric cars sold in the state, featured bi-directional charging by 2027. Now, months later, that bill was gutted, but not before. It sparked a whole lot of discussion amongst experts and legislators. Big promises from automakers to support the technology and questions from consumers like you, not the least of which is what the heck is bi-directional charging, and why should you care? Simply put bi-directional charging [00:00:30] is the ability to pull the energy in your EV's battery back out through the charging port so you can use it outside of the vehicle. But before I can dig into how that works, let's talk a little bit about how regular EV charging happens. You see the cable that comes out of the wall isn't actually your EV's charger. The real charging hardware lives deep down in here in your car's electronic guts where it acts as a rectifier, converting the alternating current that comes through the grid and out of the wall into direct current, that's your EV's battery can store. However, most electric car [00:01:00] vehicle motors use alternating current to move the wheel. So you need that hardware to also act as an inverter to convert the DC energy back into chug, chug, alternating current to turn the wheels. But what if instead of sending that power to the motors, the EV just sends it back out of the charging port. That's bi-directional charging where power flows in two directions through the charging port and an EV that features this capability can be used to power well, a whole variety of things.
Speaker 1: Now, there are a couple of different flavors [00:01:30] of bi-directional charging with the most basic being vehicle to load. Usually what you get is an adapter like this V two L adapter that comes with our long-term, KIA EV six. You plug this into the charging port, and on the other end you've got a standard 120 volt house type outlet. You can just plug pretty much whatever you want into there. From appliances to camping gear, heck, you can plug a charging cable in and charge a whole other ev. Though it's going to be a pretty slow charge. Some EVs like Ford's, F one 50 Lightning or GM's upcoming Ultium platform, electric [00:02:00] trucks can output up to 240 volts, allowing them to power even heavier gear. The next step is vehicle to home or V two H or vehicle to building. In the case of commercial buildings, these are more rare here in the states and much more expensive to implement.
Speaker 1: But a few early pilot programs allow an EV to connect directly to a home central power box where the house can draw energy from the battery pack to power every room in the building for up to a week, depending on your energy use and the size of your EV's battery vehicle to grid is the final frontier requiring deep integration with [00:02:30] local utilities. But this tech allows an EV to send energy outside of the home to the grid in an emergency or to sell excess stored energy back to the grid during times of peak use. One of the best potential vehicle to grid uses I've seen are electric school buses, which could use their big batteries while sitting idle during morning and afternoon routes to power schoolhouses or reduce brownouts during peak evening. Draw cheerleaders for bi-directional charging site, all sorts of advantages to the tech from the ability to power a campsite work site or tailgate [00:03:00] party wherever you happen to be parked, to adding energy security to your home in an area prone to blackouts and brownouts.
Speaker 1: Heck, it doesn't even cost that much to add the technology to the car because most of the hardware is already built in bi-Directional charging can also save you money working as an energy buffer between your home and a rooftop solar installation, or allowing frugal homeowners to shift their energy usage, drawing and storing power from the grid during cheap off-peak hours to be used again when rates climb later, a sort of buy low use high energy market right [00:03:30] there in your garage. Of course, the technology isn't without its drawbacks. For starters, vehicle to home only works when your vehicle is connected to your home. So if you have to go to work during a blackout, well, you could be leaving your family in the dark. Also, currently, it's very expensive to get your home ready to accept energy from your car's battery. Oftentimes, the price rivals that of stationary power solutions like Tesla's, Powerwall. And finally, there aren't that many cars in America that support bi-directional charging, and the ones that do are pretty much limited to vehicle to load party tricks, though that [00:04:00] could change as more automakers get on board with the tech. So there you go. A quick primer into bi-directional charging, how it works and what it can do for you if you're still curious. We've got even deeper dives into EV charging tech, both uni and bidirectional over on cnet.com, as well as a running list of the best EVs that feature the tech.
