With its EV production ramping up, GM is jumping into the home energy arena in a big way: GM Energy.
The consumer-facing arm of GM Energy is an e-commerce platform that is live now at GMEnergy.gm.com, where owners of GM EVs can find the necessary hardware to power their home with their EV. GM says that a fully charged Silverado EV RST First Edition can power a home for up to 21 consecutive days; that assumes strictly limited electricity use of just 5.3 kilowatt-hours per day. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates the average American home burns through 30 kWh per day, meaning that if you didn’t switch off anything, you’d get just under four days of juice out of your Silverado EV — at which point you’d not only have no power, but you’d also be unable to drive anywhere in your truck.
Homeowners who already have a GM PowerShift charger installed can pick up a V2H (vehicle-to-home) Enablement Kit for $5,600. Prices do not include installation, which could cost thousands of additional dollars. For reference, when Cars.com installed charging stations in six editors’ homes, costs ranged from ,738 to ,920, averaging ,817. The V2H Home Enablement Kit includes a hub that manages your home’s connection to the public power grid and the power flow through your home, an inverter to convert the DC power from your vehicle — or, eventually, solar panels — to the AC power used by household appliances and a low-voltage battery to jump-start the system in case of a power outage.
The GM Energy V2H bundle includes everything from the V2H Enablement Kit, plus a PowerShift charger for EV owners who don’t already have one. It costs an estimated $7,299. Both the V2H Enablement Kit and bundle are available now.
Later this year, GM will roll out the Home System, which adds a PowerBank home battery to the V2H bundle. Three battery sizes will be available, although GM Energy isn’t specifying yet what the capacity of those packs will be. Pricing for the Home System will start at $12,699.
EV owners have long known they can save money by charging their EVs during off-peak hours — typically late at night — when electricity is cheaper. Once the PowerBank is available, GM Energy suggests that homeowners could juice up those batteries during off-peak hours then feed that low-cost energy into their homes during the day, avoiding higher electricity rates. Timing for all of this will be managed through a phone app.
GM Energy is also looking to cater to businesses with commercial-scale battery banks and fleet-management systems. When customers begin to take delivery of the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV Denali, they’ll be ready to go, as those vehicles are already capable of bidirectional charging. The electric Chevrolet Blazer and Equinox and Cadillac Lyriq will need a software update to enable bidirectional charging. Depending on the vehicle, the update can either be performed over-the-air or will require a dealership visit. GM Energy is launching in California, Florida, Michigan, New York and Texas, expanding to other states over time.
