Why Disaster Preppers May Want To Wait For This Electric Car Feature

A few electric vehicles nowadays are designed with bidirectional charging capability. This means that you can charge your electric vehicle, and during a power outage, your electric vehicle can return the favor by lighting up your home. It works almost like a Tesla Powerwall, but instead, you’re using the electric car’s battery as a backup. In fact, backing up power from your electric vehicle’s battery could be cheaper and more convenient, considering a single Tesla Powerwall 13 kWh battery will cost over $20,000 to install. On the other hand, the cheapest electric car, the Chevrolet Bolt with a price tag of $25,600 comes with a 65-kWh lithium-ion battery.

To put it into perspective, a fully charged Chevrolet Bolt with a 65-kWh battery would have enough juice to back up your home for three days during a storm outage — assuming you consume 20 kWh per day. In contrast, a single Tesla Powerwall 13 kWh battery can cover you for 24 hours if you live in a two-bedroom house. Even other lithium battery backup alternatives such as Kohler and Sonnen can’t match the battery capacity of most electric vehicles — unless you’ve added multiple units, which could be expensive. However, disaster preppers may want to wait before they turning their electric cars into backup generators.