Vehicle To Load technology (V2L) might not get the spotlight like Vehicle to Grid (V2G) or Vehicle To Home (V2H), but it’s already making life easier for many EV owners in Australia. From keeping essentials running during a blackout to powering appliances at a remote campsite, V2L turns your car into a practical, portable source of electricity.
While brands like Hyundai, Kia, MG, and BYD have embraced V2L, Tesla remains noticeably absent from the party. None of Tesla’s models sold in Australia currently support it. Meanwhile, EVs with V2L offer between 2.2 kW and 3.6 kW of power, accessible through either an internal power socket or an external charging port.
What is V2L?
What’s the best way to describe V2L? I like SolarQuotes in-house installer Anthony Bennett’s description:
“Imagine V2L as a camping generator. It’s legal to use in the same fashion, but quieter and without the lethal fumes.”
If you have a V2L-capable electric car, you can plug things such as an induction cooktop, kettle, or laptop into either an internal single power socket that looks the same as a normal home power socket or externally into the car charge port using a special V2L adaptor.
If your home has a blackout, V2L can power essentials like your fridge and recharge your phones.
Make & Model | V2L Output | Internal/External V2L |
---|---|---|
Hyundai Ioniq 5 | 3.6 kW | Both Internal (240V socket) & External |
Hyundai Kona EV | 3.6 kW | Internal |
Kia EV6 | 3.6 kW | Both Internal & External |
BYD Atto 3 | 2.2 kW | External only |
MG4 | 2.2 kW | External only |
Teslas | Not available | N/A |
V2L Adaptors
If you want to use external V2L, a good adaptor is essential to keep things weatherproof, safe and practical. The adaptor converts your car’s charging socket into a standard power point.
An adaptor is sometimes included with a new EV. For example, BYD consistently provides one as standard, while Kia and Hyundai include them with some models. MG, however, does not offer a V2L adaptor as part of their package.
Curious about what makes a high-quality V2L adaptor, I contacted the experts at the custom EV cable company ‘EV Chargers.’ Their insights followed my own experience testing their custom 5m MG4 V2L adaptor at my parents’ garage, where it successfully powered a dryer to dry a load of bath towels.
EV Chargers’ Product Specialist Jason’s advice:
- use an IP67-rated industrial-grade socket with a screw-down ring that can securely lock a matching plug in place.
- longer custom cables with at least 2.5mm wiring are recommended, especially if aiming to run inductive loads like fridges/freezers, which don’t like voltage drop
Real-Life Examples
Using V2L for Emergency Power
Alex lives in Northern NSW and told me he uses his MG4 64 Essence EV to replace his petrol generator (2.8 kW inverter generator), which no longer sees much action.
His setup is:
- 11 kW grid-tied PV system that goes off-line when the grid is down
- A small off-grid PV array (2.2 kW) which supplies basic levels of supplemental energy, in addition to V2L supply when needed
- 15 kWh of off-grid LiFePO₄ solar battery for daily cycling
- Another 20 kWh of sealed lead acid battery, which acts as backup reserve capacity
Alex uses V2L to charge his off-grid home battery, which has proven invaluable during power outages. On one occasion, he discharged 22 kWh from his MG4 over 15 hours to keep essential appliances running during a prolonged grid failure.
Anticipating the outage, Alex had pre-charged his car to 100% using solar PV and free grid energy on his EV plan, instead of the usual 80%. He noted that under normal circumstances, it’s rare not to have 20–30 kWh of spare capacity for such situations.
The MG4’s V2L output was sufficient to power his home essentials and recharge the home battery throughout the outage.
Anthony’s Adage
“If you think you’ll need to back up your house, but don’t fancy rolling out extension cords & desk lamps every time there’s an outage, you’ll want some parts of the switchboard wired to automatically change over when you plug your V2L supply in.1
The HOEM device makes it simple to run your lights & saves having to move the fridge to plug it in.
In fact if you can charge cheaply at work, it’s easy to save a few dollars on electricity every night.”
V2L as a Camping Solution
Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV owner Peter told me on a recent trip from Canberra to East Gippsland they arrived at an off-grid, national park campsite and plugged the trailer into the Ioniq 5’s V2L outlet.
During the three-day campsite stay, Peter’s Hyundai EV V2L powered the fridge, kettle, toaster, microwave, and 2kW induction cooktop.
Peter advised:
“Running the fridge, microwave and induction cooktop on full power simultaneously was not a problem (3.3kW)”.
“After three days, the car’s state of charge was reduced from 89% to 55% of which about 4% was from driving. So, camping activities used about 10% per day. That could be reduced with a more efficient compressor-type fridge”.
“We had the car set to cease V2L discharge if the SOC reached 50% but we could have stayed longer and gone much lower”.
Curious about how V2L fits into your EV lifestyle? Check out our in-depth guide on bi-directional charging on our V2L, V2G, V2H Explained page.
Footnotes
- Some V2L inverters have an RCD or earth leakage safety switch function built in. It’s a bit pointless when the car doesn’t have an earth stake and completely redundant if plugged into your house switchboard. However there can be compatibility problems, with the MEN link in the house causing the safety function to trip. Some cars may need a workaround that we’ll detail in an upcoming post ↩
MG4 can output a steady 7 kw with a 32 amp V2L lead with a 470 ohm resistor across the PE to PP terminals.
Don’t try this at home, kids!
Mitsubishi Outander PHEV also has internal outlets, though limited to 1.5kW. When on a powered campsite we charge the car from the mains. When on an unpowered site we use the car to power the AVan for longer than the internal battery.
During a rare blackout in Melbourne, we powered fridge, freezer, standard lamps etc via extension leads. If the car battery got low, the engine would have kicked in. We could have lasted a long time.
Great stuff!
Given I do a bit camping in an EV, I am fairly annoyed my Polestar 2 does not come with V2L, it’s probably the car’s only minor flaw for me.
Just an excuse to upgrade to a Polestar 3 or 4 I guess!
Also, I do already have a home battery that more than meets my daily needs.
My local MG dealership supplied a V2L cable, in a neat MG-branded zip-up case, on request – at additional cost.
A contributor on another SQ blog has suggested that the MG4 might suffer from the senseless earth leakage sensitivity. I have not yet checked whether it is triggered when feeding into the generator input on a Victron battery inverter, but figure there’ll be no isolation from the MEN there. I’ll read with interest any practical work-around.
But with my off-grid installation powering three families in two households, and charging several EVs, over xmas, without the 46 kWh battery falling below 87% overnight, the need to draw on V2L seems a bit remote.