In the future, batteries will not only power electric vehicles (EVs), but also become a significant source of electricity storage. Most of today’s electric vehicles charge in only one direction, from the charging source to the EV. Other EV’s can power your home in case of a power outage, a process called Vehicle to Home (V2H). An EV battery has a much larger electrical storage capacity than typical home battery storage systems. The average usable electrical storage for EVs averages around 73 kilowatt-hours (kWh), while home batteries have a storage capacity from five to twenty kWh. EV batteries can store as much as 140 kWh, capable of running your home for several days without recharging.
The majority of EV manufacturers have one or two models that you can use to run your home. Examples of V2H include Tesla’s Cybertruck and Ford’s F-150 Lightning. General Motors (GM) has taken it one step further, making their entire line of EVs now V2H capable.
Car companies are entering the electricity provision market in other ways. For example, Tesla is the leader in selling rooftop solar installations that integrate with their cars. Tesla manufactures solar panels that act as roofing shingles. Hyundai, Ford and other car companies connect people to solar installers. As part of a total V2H package, GM will sell its customers solar panels and other storage and charging equipment.
The next step in utilizing car batteries is Vehicle to Grid (V2G). A utility or other electricity provider would have access to a number of EV batteries to work together as a virtual power plant.
Tesla appears to be in a prime position in the U.S. to lead the V2G market in the future. The company has the lead in home batteries and the utility-scale battery market. In 2025, Tesla sold 46% of the EVs in the U.S, while their next nearest competitor, GM, only sold 13% of the EV’s.
However, Tesla has yet to enter the V2G competition because it has too many other projects in the works. Toyota sells a large number of vehicles in the United States, but only has 2% of the EV market here. Toyota is seriously working on V2G in Japan but has done nothing in the U.S. market.
GM has taken a number of steps to position itself as a serious contender to provide energy to the U.S. grid. The company is working with PG&E in California in a pilot project for EVs to help with grid-balancing by 2030. In Michigan, GM employees with EVs are testing whether the car batteries can provide reliable backup power in collaboration with DTE. If GM decides to become involved with aggregating power with a large number of EVs across the country, the company could become a large-scale power company. Aseem Kapur of GM Energy agrees that is a distinct possibility. The fact that GM is involved in grid-scale battery research reinforces that possibility.
GM also has pilot programs that use EV batteries that are beyond their useful life in cars, but can be dispatched for energy in one of their factories. These second chance batteries will then be recycled into new batteries.
Some people worry that EVs are a strain on the electrical grid, with estimates suggesting EVs will increase grid demand by about 4.6% by 2030. In contrast, GM has called on utilities to consider EVs as grid assets. EVs sit idle most of the time, and can be called upon to help stabilize the grid during high demand time.
The development of these technologies for utility-wide scale use are still in the early pilot phase but hold a great deal of promise to provide a more stable and reliable grid in the future.
You can direct questions or comments regarding this blog to Mike Buza at theoriginalzuba@yahoo.com.