V2L, V2H, V2G: Which UK Electric Cars Can Power Your Home?

Your electric car's battery isn't just for driving. A growing number of EVs can send powerback - to appliances, your house, or even the national grid. In a country where energy bills have been headline news since 2022, this is a genuinely useful feature that most buyers don't know to look for.

We've gone through every EV on sale in the UK and flagged which models support V2L (vehicle-to-load), V2H (vehicle-to-home), and V2G (vehicle-to-grid). Here's what each means, and which cars have it.

V2L - vehicle-to-load

V2L is the simplest form of bidirectional power. Your car has a standard outlet (usually a three-pin plug or a dedicated adapter for the charge port) that lets you power external devices directly from the battery. Think:

• Camping - power a kettle, lights, a small heater, or a laptop
• Power tools on a job site with no mains access
• Emergency backup during a power cut
• Charging another EV (yes, really)

Most V2L systems provide 3.6kW of power, though some go higher. That's enough to run most household appliances but not an oven or electric shower.

V2H - vehicle-to-home

V2H takes things further. With a compatible bidirectional charger installed at your home (like the Wallbox Quasar 2 or Indra Smart PRO), your car can feed power directly into your house wiring. This means:

• Cheap-rate charging, peak-rate usage - charge overnight on a cheap EV tariff (like Octopus Go at ~7p/kWh), then discharge during the expensive peak period (~26p/kWh). The spread between off-peak and peak rates determines your savings
• Solar self-consumption - store excess solar generation in your car battery during the day, use it in the evening
• Power cut resilience - keep your lights and fridge running during outages

V2H requires specific hardware and software support from both the car and the charger. Currently only 2 EVs on sale in the UK officially support it.

V2G - vehicle-to-grid

V2G is the most ambitious version: your car sells power back to the national grid when demand is high, and charges when demand (and prices) are low. Energy suppliers like Octopus and OVO have been trialling V2G tariffs that pay you for the energy your car exports.

V2G is still early days in the UK. The technology works, but it requires a compatible car, a V2G-capable charger, and a participating energy tariff. Currently only 2 EVs on sale in the UK support it.

The savings potential

Let's do some rough maths. A typical UK household uses around 7-9kWh of electricity per day (based on Ofgem's typical domestic consumption values). Most EVs with V2H have batteries of 60-100kWh. Even if you only allow the car to discharge to 50% (to preserve driving range), that's 30-50kWh of available storage - enough to power your home for 3-5 days.

With Octopus Go (~7p/kWh off-peak vs ~26p/kWh peak as of Q3 2026), shifting 8kWh from off-peak to peak saves roughly £1.52 per day - around £555 per year. That alone could pay for a bidirectional charger within 3-4 years.

What to look for

If bidirectional power is important to you, prioritise:

1. V2L at minimum - useful immediately with no home installation needed
2. Large battery capacity - more kWh means more available energy for your home
3. CCS charge port - the standard in the UK. Note that some early V2G chargers used CHAdeMO (e.g. with the Nissan Leaf), but CCS is now the standard for new bidirectional hardware
4. Manufacturer V2H roadmap - some cars are hardware-ready but awaiting software updates

Want to find all V2L-equipped EVs? Use our search and filter tools to narrow down your options, or compare specific models side by side.