Electric vehicles can become generators for their owners – 06/16/2023 – Market

Electric vehicles stir the emotions of many people. There’s the thrill of instant acceleration, the ego boost of feeling like the coolest guy on the block, and the pleasurable feeling of being on the right side of the climate change story.

But the new generation of electric American trucks takes that thrill to a whole new level. The Ford F-150 Lightning — the electric version of America’s best-selling vehicle — is capable of powering a home for three days in a hurricane or powering a remote workplace, including power tools.

Owners of electric trucks boast that it’s like having an on-board generator that produces no emissions: the multiple outlets can inflate an air mattress, fry bacon, make coffee and run the air conditioner when you’re camping.

A Rivian owner used his pickup truck to turn on the sound system at a wedding with 150 guests held in an area with no connection to the power grid. In Texas, a urologist performed what he said was the world’s first vasectomy done using power supplied by a Rivian.

Some owners say they enjoy the “personal generator” as much as the powertrain, but energy experts say these aren’t just fun features. Electric vehicles could be modified to feed energy back into America’s troubled grid, not just draw power from it.

At a time when many people fear that electric car recharges will overwhelm an already failing power grid, electric companies and car makers say they can be part of the solution. Electric pickup truck owners could even make money by selling power back to the grid at peak times for more than they paid to charge their vehicles overnight.

The Natural Resources Defense Council says this isn’t science fiction: It calculates that California could power every home in the state for three days if all the battery-electric cars it plans to put on the road by 2035 also turned back. power directly to the grid.

Matthias Preindl, a professor of electrical engineering at Columbia University, says he dreams of a day when vehicles can function as energy storage facilities in case of need. For a limited time, together they could “provide more electrical power than all conventional power plants combined”—and with less emissions than the peak power plants currently used to meet demand when it becomes extreme.

Of course, before that can happen, the US needs to get more electric vehicles out on the streets — or, more accurately, in driveways, where most cars spend 95% of their time anyway. More models are being launched all the time: GM’s Silverado electric pickup, with models that promise a range of 650km to 730km, will be launched this year.

Most experts estimate that only 1% of all vehicles on US roads are electric, but sales are rising fast: according to the International Energy Agency, sales of EVs in the United States were up 55% last year, reaching to 8% of all vehicles.

Westley Ferguson, 33, is helping fuel that boom. Like many electric truck buyers, he has never owned an electric vehicle or a truck before — Ford chief executive Jim Farley often says that most Lightning buyers are buying a truck for the first time. Ferguson told me over the phone that he wanted an electric vehicle “because investing in a gasoline vehicle felt like investing in the past, whereas an EV felt like investing in the future.”

He and his wife received their $67,000 Ford F0150 Lightning just before their Florida home lost power for three days during last year’s Hurricane Ian. Westley ran extension cords in the truck and drained 10% of the battery every day to run his refrigerator, lights, fan, television, electric range, stereo, and speakers.

Later, he and his wife used the truck to inflate an air mattress, cook dinner and run the cabin air conditioner when they camped overnight to watch a rocket launch — and all for between 3% and 5% from the pickup battery.

Brian Calbeck, 35, is a Google engineer who told me he’s thrilled to see how his Rivian R1T “utilizes, stores and reuses energy.” Last year he used the truck to drive the sound system at a family wedding in a place without electricity. He says he will be “the first to apply” when vehicles can start returning electricity to the grid in his state, California – but only if electric companies pay a fair price.

With thousands of energy companies operating across the United States and many stakeholders whose interests need to align, I don’t know if electric vehicles will be helping to power the electrical grid in my lifetime. I’ll be content for now with filling up my air mattress and saving the frozen meat when there’s a power outage during a heat wave. For me, this is the electric vehicle lifestyle.

Translated by Clara Allain