BYD photo highlights 'revolutionary' EV feature changing Aussie habits

This feature stands to completely 'revolutionise' the electricity grid, industry experts say.

Joe Attanasio
·Senior Reporter
Updated ·4-min read
A BYD owner posing while using his car to power his kettle, while on a road trip and away from a traditional power source.
A BYD owner recently boasted about charging his kettle with his car, while on a road trip and away from a traditional power source. Source: Facebook

Aussie EV enthusiasts are discovering many of their cars also serve as huge, portable power banks that can recharge common household items, and even funnel power back into the grid in the event of an outage. Experts told Yahoo News this "emerging" technology stands to completely "revolutionise" how we use electricity and expect it'll become even more mainstream as early as next year.

Vehicle to grid (V2G), vehicle to home (V2H) and vehicle to load (V2L) are all terms which involve the bi-directional flow of energy between electric vehicles, homes and the grid. EV owners may be familiar with these terms, with many of them already driving cars with the capability, but it's largely a topic industry experts are still learning about.

Many manufacturers, such as BYD, already sport the convenient function in some of their models, as one Aussie man recently found out. "It’s very handy on a road trip to be able to boil a kettle for a cup of tea [using your car]," the BYD owner gleefully wrote online this week.

Ross De Rango, Head of Energy and Infrastructure at the Australian Electric Vehicle Council, agreed the tech is handy. Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, he said while useful, V2G and V2L must be used responsibly and only after drivers research how to do it safely first.

"V2L is an available feature of several cars on the market today, which Australians are able to use," he said. "V2G is a bit more emergent, with more complex technical requirements — we expect to see it become more mainstream next year."

An electric vehicle powers another using to V2V technology.
Australian EV owners dabbling in vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) charging have been warned the emerging technology could be dangerous, or even damaging to the car. Source: Facebook

De Rango said he believes the technology could revolutionise the power grid in time, but warned we're not there quite yet. "The amount of battery storage that will ultimately exist in the batteries in our cars will dwarf all other forms of grid-connected storage," he said.

"Unlocking V2G will drive down energy costs for everyone (not just the EV drivers), enable us to close coal and gas fired power stations sooner, and make our overall energy system more reliable and resilient."

Earlier this year Yahoo News reported on a Tasmanian man who used his BYD to power an entire school's server room, which was undergoing maintenance during the holidays.

IT technician Matthew Taylor explained how his "mighty little Dophin" provided electricity "to the server room during a planned switchboard upgrade", running "infrastructure and switching like a champion".

A BYD in Tasmania is seen powering a Hobart school's entire server room during a planned outage.
Hobart-based IT manager Matthew Taylor said he powered the school's server where he worked using his BYD during a planned outage. Source: Supplied

"Nobody even noticed a thing, I would 100 per cent recommend it," he told Yahoo in July. "No safety issues at all, it has its own cut-outs if it draws too much power. We did the maths beforehand and we knew that our draw would be under the max load."

A spokesperson for BYD's Australian branch also confirmed the function had been rolled out in some models. "These cars leverage our vehicle-to-load function essentially turning any BYD vehicle into a mobile power bank," they earlier told Yahoo.

Responding to the BYD owner's post this week, others also praised the feature — one it's understood Tesla doesn't have.

"I chose a Seal over Tesla because of V2L and Apple Car Play. We are in a rural area and don’t have town water so rely on water pumps," one person wrote in the comments. " A blackout is rare but becoming more frequent. We can still have water now thanks to the Seal."

While another said, "We bought the Seal because our Tesla Powerwall (home battery) lost capacity. Now we are using the Seal (2,9 kW 80kWh) as home battery overnight, every night."

But, one of the country's leading mechanics warned of just how much is at stake if a person doesn't know what they're doing.

Canberra-based mechanic Saffy Sgroi said "safety is the number one concern" when it comes to V2V charging. "We're talking about working with a huge battery here," she told Yahoo. "You've got 400 kilowatts of battery running, they can fry you. If you do the wrong thing — you're gone."

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