Would Fleet Drivers Benefit from Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) Power? (2024)

The concept makes sense: Using an electric vehicle's battery to power a job site, home, work tools, and even feed power back to the utility grid can conserve energy bills and potentially put money back in the pocket of the EV owner.

Yet actual vehicle-to-grid (V2G) applications to date have been minimal, for a few reasons: EVs still only represent a fraction of the vehicles on the road; until now, only a few models supported V2G bidirectional charging, and financial schemes to benefit from feeding energy back to the grid are just forming.

A bidirectional system also has an added cost, and questions remain about potential battery degradation.

Yet an increasing number of EV models can perform some form of bidirectional charging. The most basic is the powering of campsite appliances, small jobsite tools, or the ability to “jump” another EV.

Vehicle-to-home (V2H) charging is a step up from those applications. V2H requires a more complex conversion process and special equipment and software to manage the loads. A bidirectional home charger allows for two-way charging and converts AC from the grid into DC power used by EVs and vice versa.

Would fleet drivers benefit from a V2H charging system?

The most immediate answer depends on whether the fleet driver lives in an area susceptible to power blackouts. According to GM Energy's Chief Revenue Officer, Aseem Kapur, the U.S. economy loses about $150 billion yearly because of outages.

For more information on which states are at the most at risk for power outages, click here.

Kapur made his point at a recent press event in Los Angeles. The event was designed to demonstrate GM Energy’s new V2H system using a Chevrolet Silverado EV RST connected to a home that needs a lot of power — the 10,000-sq.-ft. renovated midcentury modern former residence of Dean Martin and The Fugitive actor David Jannsen.

GM Energy’s Product Suite

GM Energy’s V2H bundle starts with the PowerShift charger, which, as a standalone option, is one of the fastest home chargers on the market. It can charge at an impressive 19.2 kW (80 amps), compared to a more ubiquitous11.5-kW home charger.

The initial system also includes an inverter that converts DC battery power to AC grid power at 9.6 kWh as it sends it to the home.

The Home System, which adds the PowerBank energy storage in three battery sizes, will be available later this year. GM Energy's "Dark Start" battery holds enough juice to power the system if the grid goes down suddenly.

GM’s preferred installer, Qmerit, can help obtain permits and connect with utilities.

Brent Deep, GM Energy’s chief engineer of residential charging solutions, shared that he’d been testing the V2H system at his home for months. He had run simultaneous devices such as air conditioners, an outdoor hot tub, an electric furnace, an electric oven and range, appliances, and all the lights for his family of four for up to four days.

The Silverado EV’s battery supplied the requisite power to the house for days without interruption or his family noticing, he said.

V2H in Action

To dramatize the technology's impact, at sunset, the GM Energy team flipped a breaker to disconnect power from the grid.

When the lights came back on, the entire house — including a full kitchen run by gourmet chefs preparing hors d'oeuvres — was powered by the 200-kWh battery in the Chevrolet Silverado EV RST in the garage.

The Silverado EV RST is the first vehicle equipped with GM Energy's V2H bidirectional charging system. By model year 2026, GM will expand thetechnology to all of its Ultium-based EVs.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

The GM EnergyV2H bundle, which includes the V2H Enablement Kit and the PowerShift charger, is available now for about $7,300. Pricing for the full Home System will start at $12,699.

Are power outages prevalent enough to warrant this cost?

For those living in wildfire country in northern California or for a fellow journalist at the event who lives in Golden, Colorado, the answer gets closer to a yes. Like other systems for fleets, maintaining uptime through multiple days of work and life hindrances is worth the cost.

For others, the GM’s V2H system could be the test case for when EVs are more widely adopted.

In principle, EV owners, including fleets, could lower their energy bills by charging outside peak demand times and storing energy in the PowerBank. They could also arbitrage energy back to the utility for credits like homeowners selling surplus solar power to the grid.

When fully built out, EVs could act as a virtual power plant, supplying power during peak demand and improving grid stability.

Before widespread adoption, many technical, standardization, and regulatory hurdles must be overcome. However, demonstrating the feasibility of these systems is the first step.