Can your EV power your home?

V2L vs V2H vs V2G: the three flavors

"Bidirectional charging" is an umbrella term for three distinct capabilities, and it's worth being precise about which one a given EV actually has because the hardware, cost, and usefulness are very different.

V2L (Vehicle-to-Load): the plug-in-the-car capability

V2L is the simplest of the three. The EV has one or more AC outlets, either built into the car or accessible via a J1772/NACS-to-outlet adapter, and you plug appliances, tools, or small electronics directly into the vehicle. Output is typically 1.5-2.4 kW on most EVs, because a built-in outlet is a 120V household socket and that is what 120V gives you. The real outliers are pickups with a purpose-built power system: the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV reach 10.2 kW across their outlets, and the Ford F-150 Lightning and Tesla Cybertruck 9.6 kW each (Pro Power Onboard on the Ford; the bed and cabin outlets on the Tesla). Treat any bigger number with suspicion: a car’s headline kW figure is usually its AC charging rate, which is the power going in, not what the outlets can push out. The newest example is the adapter kind: Tesla's $80 Tesla Outlet Adapter replaces the outlet plug on a Gen 3 Mobile Connector, giving two 120V outlets rated 20A: 2.4 kW total across both, not per outlet. Tesla extended it to the Model Y Premium on August 14, 2026, and by October its shop listed every Model 3 and Model Y trim built from October 2026 (earlier: Model Y Performance built from December 2025, Model Y Premium from April 2026). There are no built-in cabin or cargo outlets, older cars are excluded, and Tesla checks your VIN at checkout because the gate is the car's power-conversion hardware. No home integration, no electrician, no utility approval. Great for camping, job sites, tailgates, or running a freezer during a short outage. Doesn't power your whole house.

GM is the confusing one, and it trips people up in both directions. GM does not build V2L outlets into most of its EVs; it sells V2L as a charge-port accessory, the GM Power Bar and Power Bar + (roughly $543 and $572 at GM parts list prices). Fitment is much narrower than "GM EVs": GM's own catalogs list it for the Silverado EV, Sierra EV, both Hummer EV bodies, the Escalade IQ and IQL, the 2023–2024 Lyriq in Luxury and Sport trims, and the Celestiq, and not for the Blazer EV, Equinox EV, Optiq or Vistiq. The trucks are the exception that does have real built-in outlets: Chevrolet publishes up to 10.2 kW across as many as 11 outlets on the Silverado EV, and GMC publishes the same 10.2 kW for the Sierra EV's Energy Transfer Pro. For the accessory itself, GM publishes no kW figure at all. Trade press says roughly 3 kW, GM has never confirmed it, and so this table shows "Yes" instead of a number.

V2H (Vehicle-to-Home): the real home-backup capability

V2H is what most people actually want. The EV connects to your home's electrical panel through a certified bidirectional charger and an automatic transfer switch. When the grid goes down, the transfer switch disconnects you from the utility and the EV starts powering your whole home, within seconds on some systems and up to a minute on Tesla's. Typical output is 7.6-19.2 kW, enough to run HVAC, fridge, freezer, induction cooking, lights, and the rest of a typical US home. A fully-charged Silverado EV (212 kWh max) can power a typical home for up to 21 days at normal consumption.

V2H requires brand-specific hardware today. You can't yet buy a universal charger and use it with any EV. The GM Energy stack works for Ultium vehicles, Tesla Powershare works for the Cybertruck (and, only through a Powerwall 3, for a Model 3 or Model Y ordered from October 1, 2026), and so on (Ford's once-pioneering Charge Station Pro stack was discontinued in 2026). The Wallbox Quasar 2 and dcbel Ara are the closest things to "multi-vehicle" chargers today, and both support ISO 15118-20 and a growing list of cars.

V2G (Vehicle-to-Grid): the paid one

V2G is V2H plus a utility contract. Your EV doesn't just power your own home; it exports energy back to the grid during high-demand periods, and your utility pays you for that participation. There is no published U.S. typical figure yet. Massachusetts ConnectedSolutions pays $275 per kW of the car's average performance across the summer season (Massachusetts Clean Energy Center), which for a car averaging 5–10 kW works out to about $1,375–$2,750 a season on our arithmetic, before any share kept by the enrolling provider.

V2G is still genuinely rare in the US: by our count on August 17, 2026, exactly 5 programs pay a residential EV owner anything, across four states. Two others we had previously listed do not: Green Mountain Power's Bring Your Own Device is home-battery-only, and National Grid has no residential V2G program in New York. The biggest US milestones this year: Tesla Powershare Grid Support (Cybertruck owners in Texas CenterPoint + Oncor territory, launched February 2026), PG&E's V2X pilots in California, and, in May 2026, the first residential bidirectional charger interconnected in San Diego County (a Kia EV9 on a Wallbox Quasar 2, run by The Mobility House's Cascade aggregator in grid-parallel-with-export mode). Internationally the signal is even louder: Volkswagen + Elli launch a fully integrated consumer V2G package in Germany in Q4 2026 (pre-registration June 2026), and Mercedes-Benz enables bidirectional charging on the new electric GLC and CLA starting 2026 in Germany, France and the UK. Neither is a US offering yet, but they show V2G crossing from pilot to mainstream product. Expect meaningful US expansion in 2026-2027 as the first standards-based V2G-AC products certify under the UL 1741 CRD and more utilities file V2G tariffs with their state PUCs.

Which EVs support what

The landscape changed dramatically in 2024-2025. V2L used to be exotic; now it's standard on nearly every new EV. V2H was a single-product story (Ford F-150 Lightning); today 21 models across 9 brands can do it. V2G, which was purely a fleet/commercial demo category two years ago, just started paying residential customers this year.

One company accounts for most of that growth. GM's own V2H-capable list runs to twelve nameplates: the Chevrolet Silverado EV, Blazer EV, Equinox EV and the 2027 Bolt EV; the GMC Sierra EV and both Hummer EV bodies; and every electric Cadillac, meaning the Lyriq, Optiq, Escalade IQ, Vistiq and Celestiq. If you own a Cadillac EV, you can power your house with it. That is worth stating plainly because it is easy to miss: GM markets home backup as a GM Energy product rather than a Cadillac feature, so the capability rarely appears on the vehicle page you were actually reading.

What 2026 has actually taught us is that the direction of travel is not always forward. Ford killed the Charge Station Pro and replaced it with a generator-style outlet path. The redesigned Nissan Leaf gained V2L and lost V2H outright when it dropped CHAdeMO. Tesla took two steps on its volume cars where buyers wanted one: an $80 outlet adapter in August, then home backup on the Model 3 and Model Y in October, but only for cars ordered from October 1 and only alongside a Powerwall 3, never on their own. And two cars widely written up as V2H vehicles, the Rivian R2 and the BMW iX3, cannot actually power a US home today. That is why this table separates what a car can do from what its owner can buy.

What it really costs to install V2H in 2026

The real all-in cost depends on which EV you own and what state your electrical panel is in. The makers publish hardware prices only; installation is quoted by a local electrician and depends on your panel, the wiring run and permits, so we don't put a number on it. Hardware prices:

• Tesla Cybertruck + Powershare: $1,970 in hardware (the Tesla Shop's bundle price, October 7, 2026), plus installation. Cheapest path if you own a Cybertruck, but the hardware purchase and install is the real gate: Texas enrolment is open to any Cybertruck owner in territory, not invitation-only, and still costs this much before you earn anything.
• Tesla Model 3 / Model Y + Powerwall 3: no Gateway and no extra hardware if you already have a Powerwall 3 and a Tesla Wall Connector. But without a Powerwall there is no home-backup path at all, so the Powerwall is the real cost. Cars ordered from October 1, 2026 qualify; some earlier ones do too.
• GM Ultium + GM Energy V2H Bundle: $8,998 at list, read off gmenergy.gm.com on October 8, 2026 (the $7,299 figure widely quoted elsewhere is a stale 2024 number). GM runs frequent promotions on the bundle; check gmenergy.gm.com for the current one. The price excludes installation, which GM leaves to its preferred installers. Still the most broadly available factory V2H path, and GM's own V2H-capable list now runs to twelve models including the 2027 Bolt EV and the Cadillac Celestiq, Vistiq, Escalade IQ and Optiq.
• Kia EV9 + Wallbox Quasar 2: $6,440 in hardware (Wallbox's last published price), plus installation. In PG&E territory it qualifies for PG&E's V2X incentives plus up to $9,241 through Bidirectional Energy's pilot (PG&E, checked September 27, 2026).
• Volvo EX90 / Polestar 3 + dcbel Ara: $9,999 in hardware (dcbel's last published price), plus installation. In PG&E territory it qualifies for PG&E's V2X incentives plus up to $13,800 through dcbel's California Connected Home Rebate (PG&E, checked September 27, 2026).

Ford's replacement, and why it isn't the same thing. The Ford Charge Station Pro + Home Integration System, long the go-to mid-priced path on the F-150 Lightning, is no longer sold, and Ford has ended Lightning production. Existing owners keep their ~9.6 kW home backup. On July 22, 2026 Ford launched an official successor with Global Power Products: a Ford Vehicle Connector plus GenerLink's meter-collar transfer switch, roughly $1,100 of hardware and $1,350–$1,550 installed. That is dramatically cheaper than any true V2H stack, and approved for direct meter mount by more than 800 US utilities. Understand the mechanism before you compare the price: GenerLink runs off the truck's 240V Pro Power Onboard outlet, so the truck is a generator sitting behind a transfer switch. Power only flows one way, nothing passes through the charge port, and there is no path to V2G. Supported: 2022–2025 F-150 Lightning and 2021–2026 F-150 PowerBoost Hybrid. The 2026 Lightning is not on Ford's list.

Add $1,500-$3,000 if your home needs a service upgrade to 200 amps (Qmerit's 2026 figure; common on sub-200A services). Run your panel through our free NEC 220.83 panel calculator first. It'll tell you whether you actually need an upgrade or whether load management could let you skip it. California's biggest lever is utility-specific: PG&E's V2X Program pays $2,500 upfront ($3,000 in disadvantaged communities) plus $1,500 to its first 250 enrollees (as reported by pv magazine USA, Aug 25, and Electrek, Sep 3, 2026), and its eligible-products list adds up to $13,800 (dcbel Ara) or $9,241 (Wallbox Quasar 2) in partner rebates. Stacked, Electrek (Sep 3, 2026) puts an early adopter at roughly $17,000. Outside PG&E, SGIP's residential storage steps were closed or waitlisted on August 17, 2026, and DCAP's $2,000 is income-qualified. Most other states have no comparable incentive.

The standards that'll unlock mass-market V2G in 2026-2027

Two standards are driving the next wave of bidirectional hardware. Both matter because they move the industry from vendor-locked ecosystems (Ford only works with Ford, GM only works with GM) to true interoperability (any ISO 15118-20 car works with any ISO 15118-20 charger).

ISO 15118-20

This is the second-generation standard governing the "plug-and-charge" handshake between EV and charger. Unlike 15118-2, it formally supports bidirectional power transfer, wireless charging, and automatic vehicle authentication. Amendment 1 was published on July 13, 2026, adding bidirectional power transfer, AC distributed-energy-resource services, Megawatt Charging System services, and a revised security model. The EU is mandating ISO 15118-20 on all new public charging points from January 1, 2027. The US has not followed: NEVI (23 CFR Part 680) still requires only that chargers have hardware capable of ISO 15118-20 while mandating software conformance to the older 15118-2. Emporia's V2X and Enphase's IQ Bidirectional chargers are the first US residential units being designed to the new spec.

UL 1741 Supplement SC: published May 2026

UL 1741 is the long-standing US safety standard for inverters (solar, battery, and now bidirectional EV chargers). Supplement SC was published in May 2026: "AC Bidirectional Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment for EVs with SAE J3072 Bidirectional Onboard Inverters." The unlock is structural: it lets a charger act as an oversight supervisor for any vehicle designed and tested to SAE J3072, so a vehicle and charger no longer have to be certified together as a single system. That system-pair requirement is the technical reason today's V2H market is vendor-locked. With SC published and ISO 15118-20 Amendment 1 following in July, the remaining barrier to a charger that works with more than one brand of car is commercial, not regulatory.

We had this wrong. Through mid-2026 this page said UL 1741 SC was not yet finalized and that products were certifying through the interim CRD pathway. SC was actually published in May 2026 (before our June verification pass), and trade press did not report it until late July. Corrected August 15, 2026.

What's coming in the next 12-24 months

The residential V2H/V2G space will look substantially different by April 2028. Watching indicators:

• Hyundai Motor Group rollout: Still the Kia EV9 alone, and it did not move this summer. Hyundai Ioniq 9 and Kia EV6 remain queued for V2H via Wallbox Quasar 2, in that order, with no dates. On July 24, 2026 Hyundai and Kia consolidated their charging services under a new global brand, AllDayEnergy, but read the rollout before reading the headline: it starts in the UK in the second half of 2026 with smart charging only, V2G and V2H follow in later phases, and the US is named as an expansion market with no date. No vehicle, no kW figure, and no mention of the Quasar 2 in the announcement.
• BMW iX3: Bidirectional hardware, no US destination. BMW's V2G is a German product built with E.ON, and its V2H (Neue Klasse cars plus the BMW Wallbox Professional and SOLARWATT's home energy management system) launches late 2026 in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. BMW's US page confirms the car "supports bidirectional charging" but names no kW figure, no hardware and no US utility program. We previously listed the iX3 as V2G-capable in the US; that was wrong, and the row is corrected.
• Rivian: Nothing bidirectional is buyable yet, on any Rivian. The R2 (deliveries began Spring 2026) has the V2H hardware, but CSO Wassym Bensaid confirmed it cannot power a home until Rivian's own bidirectional charger and metering device exist, and that charger is not on sale, not priced, and not dated, the same blocker as the R1T and R1S. R2 owners get V2L: one 120V cabin outlet, plus a Field Outlet NACS accessory that is also not yet on sale. Rivian did join ChargeScape (the BMW/Ford/Honda/Nissan grid-services JV) in June 2026, with R2 V2G expected via a future OTA. We previously credited the R2 with 11 kW of built-in V2H; that figure appears in no source we can find, and the row is corrected.
• Tesla beyond Cybertruck: Tesla moved twice. On August 14, 2026 it extended the $80 Outlet Adapter (V2L, 2.4 kW total) to the Model Y Premium; on October 6, 2026 it extended Powershare Home Backup to every Model 3 and Model Y ordered in the US or Puerto Rico from October 1, on every trim. What to watch next is what Tesla left out: the cars back up a house only alongside a Powerwall 3 (Powerwall 2 and Powerwall+ are listed as "coming soon"), there is no Gateway-only path like the Cybertruck's, and Grid Support (V2G) is still Cybertruck-only. Tesla's pages do not mention the Model S, Model X or Model Y L for home backup.
• Emporia V2X: Slipped. Emporia's own help centre now states it is targeting a 2027 release, and the product page says only "Coming Soon" with no price. The $2,500 figure circulating in forums is not from Emporia and we won't repeat it as fact. Pricing will still be the tell: if Emporia lands meaningfully below $5,000 of hardware, it reshapes the market.
• Enphase IQ Bidirectional: Still targeting volume production in Q4 2026, with limited pilot deployments first (Enphase, February 2, 2026). It charges and discharges through the car's DC port and exchanges up to 11.5 kW of AC power with the home. Enphase has published no price; the $4,000–$5,000 range quoted in secondary coverage does not come from Enphase. Homes that already run Enphase solar will have the most direct install path, through the same installer network.
• Toyota: The largest automaker in the world still sells no US EV with V2L, V2H or V2G. The 2027 Highlander EV is billed as its first, V2L only, on sale at the end of 2026, with no kW figure, no hardware partner. Toyota's RAV4 PHEV V2H remains Japan-only.
• More state programs, and what is actually behind them: checked August 18, 2026 across all 43 remaining states plus DC, not one has an open residential V2G program that pays an EV owner today. What is genuinely moving: New Jersey (NJBPU docket QO26030099 names bidirectional EV chargers as an eligible resource; utility proposals due end of 2026, interim program 2027-28), Virginia (Dominion ordered to build a 450 MW virtual power plant including EVs, tariff due November 15, 2026), and Pennsylvania and West Virginia (utilities must propose VPP programs by July 2027). Washington is further along than a pipeline: Puget Sound Energy and ChargeScape are running a live bidirectional demonstration with the F-150 Lightning and Kia EV9, but enrolment is restricted to PSE employees, the benefit is time-of-use bill savings rather than export payment, and PSE says it hopes to widen it “as soon as 2027”. Two corrections to what this page used to say: New York does not belong on this list at all, and Oregon’s PGE ran a V2X demonstration but its Smart Grid Test Bed page now lists no V2X offering and nothing a customer can join. North Carolina is the cautionary one: Duke had NCUC approval for a 100-vehicle F-150 Lightning V2G pilot and suspended it before launch.