How We Used Our Kia EV6 To Power a House During an Outage

One of the many experiences of switching from a gas-powered car to an EV like our 2022 Kia EV6 Wind AWD is discovering new and somewhat cryptic features like "Vehicle to Load" (or V2L for short). V2L essentially turns the EV6 into an electric generator by tapping into its ginormous 77.4 kWh battery and bidirectional charger to provide AC power to your electronic devices and appliances. There's two ways to plug in to the Kia's V2L feature—the first is through an adapter that connects to the EV6's charge port, and the second is a power outlet located inside the vehicle between the rear floorboard and bottom seat cushion. Here's what it's like to use V2L.

Admittedly, I initially assumed I wouldn't find much use for the EV6's bi-directional charging capability and would later need to come up with a gimmicky way to report on it. Well, things got very real on January 17, when Southern California Edison scheduled a power outage in my neighborhood to upgrade the electrical grid.

The outage would take place in the middle of the night (from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. ), when temperatures were expected to dip into the low 40s. My home, like many in this neighborhood filled with older Spanish- and Craftsman-style bungalows, features original lathe and plaster walls, no insulation, and single-pane wooden windows. That means temperatures inside usually aren't far off from the outside without a proper HVAC system. Not surprisingly, the neighborhood Facebook page was in a tizzy leading up to the outage.

"This is such stupid timing," one neighbor said. "They have other outages and they're doing them in the daytime."

"My poor skinny kids!" another wrote.

"All set here," one neighbor said. "Solar generator's ready and waiting."

With that comment I thought - "Hey, I've got a generator sitting on my driveway!"

With the EV6 parked close to my house, I plugged in an extension cord to the V2L adapter (via the charge port), ran it through the dining room window, and did a test run with my space heater. According to the V2L indicator on the instrumented panel, the heater was drawing about 900 watts, well below the V2L's 3.6 kW limit. I could have used even more devices. With the battery's state of charge at 33 percent, I estimated there was enough juice to run just my space heater's temperature control for around 10 hours (V2L automatically shuts off at a 20 percent state of charge).

Shortly before 9 p.m. the electricity cut off. I powered up the space heater, took one last look at the neighborhood Facebook page, and headed to bed. When I woke up in the morning, the space heater was silent. The room was cold, but bearable, and I hadn't woken up cold. The EV6's V2L system did its job and kept me warm at night. And with that I have a newfound appreciation for such a simple, yet effective feature not found on many cars. If V2L saves the day again, we'll be sure to report on it.

For More On Our Long-Term 2022 Kia EV6 Wind AWD: