HOW YOUR CAR COULD POWER YOUR HOUSE

BIDIRECTIONAL CHARGING HAS BEEN BILLED AS ONE OF THE KEY SUSTAINABLE FUTURE ENERGY SOLUTIONS. WE EXPLAIN WHAT IT IS AND WHAT BENEFITS IT BRINGS

- Tom Jervis

WITH the implementation of bidirectional charging, your car could soon act as a portable power bank, standing by to redirect electricity from its own battery into your home. And certain technologies could let your car to act as a power supply for tools and appliances, as well as other electric vehicles.

But how does this work, what technology is already out there, are there really any benefits, and what challenges do we face to implement bidirectional charging? These are the questions we'll answer below, with the help of some industry experts.

What is bidirectional charging?

In a nutshell, bidirectional charging is exactly what it sounds like; energy is able to flow both ways – meaning, for example, that your home can power your EV, and your EV can power your home. While standard single-directional charging transforms AC current to a DC form that a car’s battery can receive, bidirectional tech can revert this back to AC and send it in the other direction.

What are the different types of bidirectional charging?

To make things even more confusing, there are several types of bidirectional charging, with the phrase ‘Vehicle-to-Everything’ (V2X) being used as a catch-all term for this. We've focused on the most common V2X variations below, but there are a handful of more obscure ones in development, and there are sure to be more variants coming in the future, too.

Vehicle-to-load

Vehicle-to-load (V2L) is one of the most common types of bidirectional charging, essentially enabling you to use your EV as an enormous mobile power pack, much like the ones people carry around for their mobile phone. Several manufacturers already offer V2L technology in their EVs, primarily aimed at outdoorsy types, because you can use a car to run accessories at a campsite, charge up an e-bike, or supply power tools with electricity at a job site.

Vehicle-to-home (V2H)