When the power goes out

A charged EV in the driveway is the biggest battery most households will ever own. Getting that power into the house ranges from plugging in a cord to a serious electrical project — here's the honest ladder, cheapest rung first.

How much energy is that?

A typical home uses about 30 kWh of electricity a day. Running only the essentials — fridge and freezer, the furnace blower, a well or sump pump, lights and phones — takes roughly 10 kWh. We count 80% of a battery as usable for backup; the rest stays in reserve so the vehicle can still reach a charger afterward, and covers inverter losses.

The largest pack in our catalog, the Cadillac Escalade IQ's 200 kWh, works out to about 5½ days of typical use or about 16 days of essentials. A mid-size EV battery is a night or two of essentials — still more than most portable generators carry in fuel.

Rung 1: a household outlet on the vehicle — nothing to install

Some EVs have ordinary 120-volt outlets in the bed, the cabin or the cargo area, and a few sell an adapter that turns the charge port into one. Run a heavy-duty outdoor extension cord to the fridge, a lamp, the internet router and a space heater, and you have what a small portable generator gives you — without the noise, the fumes or the gas can.

Of the 46 vehicles whose equipment we've checked, 12 have one: Ford F-150 Lightning, Chevrolet Silverado EV, Rivian R1T, Kia EV6, Tesla Cybertruck, Rivian R1S, Lucid Gravity, Cadillac Escalade IQ, GMC Sierra EV, Subaru Uncharted, Rivian R2, Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. It won't run anything wired into the house — a well pump, central heat, the water heater — because those don't plug into an outlet. That's what the next two rungs are for.

Rung 2: a 240-volt outlet plus a transfer switch

A few trucks carry a 240-volt outlet, the same kind a portable generator has. Wire a transfer switch or interlock into your panel — the standard generator hookup a licensed electrician installs — and the truck runs the circuits you choose: furnace, well pump, fridge, lights. The whole house stays off the grid while you're on truck power, so nothing can feed back into the lines and endanger a line crew.

Ford F-150 Lightning: 240 V / 30 A (L14-30) in the bed, 7.2 kW (9.6 kW across all outlets). Needs the 9.6 kW Pro Power Onboard system — standard on Lariat and Platinum, standard or optional on XLT depending on model year. The fleet Pro trim's 2.4 kW system has 120-volt outlets only. Ford's route (July 2026): a GenerLink transfer switch at the meter plus Ford's 12-inch Vehicle Connector, which keeps the truck's built-in ground-fault protection from cutting the power. The connector is approved only for that use. Cost: About $1,100 for the switch, cord and connector, plus $250–$450 when the utility installs it on the meter, or $1,000–$1,500 for the beside-the-meter version.
Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV: 240 V / 30 A in the bed (PowerBase), 7.2 kW (10.2 kW across all outlets). A transfer switch or interlock installed by a licensed electrician. GM's supported route is its V2H bundle (below). Cost: A transfer switch or interlock plus an electrician — typically several hundred dollars to about $1,500. (Approximate — see State of the Data.)
Tesla Cybertruck: 240 V / 40 A in the bed (9.6 kW across all outlets). Tesla's supported route is Powershare Home Backup through the charge port (below); a transfer switch on the bed outlet isn't Tesla's documented path. Cost: A transfer switch or interlock plus an electrician. (Approximate — see State of the Data.)

Never improvise this with a cord into a dryer outlet. A backfeed like that can electrocute a utility worker and burn down the house, and it's illegal. Use Ford's connector only with the GenerLink it was made for. A meter-mounted switch also needs your utility's permission:

Appalachian Power (WV, VA, TN): Meter-collar transfer switches such as GenerLink are approved: you buy the device, Appalachian Power installs it, and you sign a liability waiver and pay a $100 trip charge.
Mon Power and Potomac Edison (FirstEnergy): Approval not confirmed. GenerLink's utility lookup or the utility can say; if not approved, the beside-the-meter version works.

Rung 3: whole-home backup hardware

Vehicle-to-home (V2H) systems send power out through the charge port into a bidirectional charger and a gateway that islands the house from the grid. The switchover is automatic and the whole panel is live, within the hardware's limit. It's the most capable option and by far the most expensive.

Chevrolet Equinox EV, Chevrolet Blazer EV, Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV, Cadillac Lyriq, Cadillac Escalade IQ: GM Energy V2H bundle: the PowerShift bidirectional charger plus the V2H enablement kit. $7,299 before installation; installations ran $1,700–$6,900 in one test. The kit alone is $5,600 if you already have the charger.. 2024–2026 model years; some 2024s need a dealer or over-the-air update.
Ford F-150 Lightning: Ford Charge Station Pro plus the Home Integration System (sold through Sunrun), up to 9.6 kW. $3,895 for the system plus about $2,000 to install; Standard Range trucks add $1,310 for the charger (2022 prices).
Tesla Cybertruck: Tesla Powershare Home Backup: Universal Wall Connector plus the Powershare Gateway, up to 11.5 kW. $1,990 for the hardware plus $2,000–$4,000 to install.
Kia EV9: Wallbox Quasar 2 bidirectional charger (2024–25 EV9). Charger and installation priced by Wallbox installers. Rolling out state by state, starting with California and Connecticut — not offered in West Virginia as of September 2026.

How many days?

Battery size times the usable share, divided by daily use. Where the maker publishes its own figure, it's noted on the row — they use the same 30 kWh-a-day assumption.

Cadillac Escalade IQ Luxury AWD200 kWh
about 5½ days of typical use · about 16 days of essentials
Chevrolet Silverado EV LT Extended Range170 kWh
about 4½ days of typical use · about 13½ days of essentials
GMC Sierra EV Denali Extended Range170 kWh
about 4½ days of typical use · about 13½ days of essentials
Ford F-150 Lightning XLT Extended Range131 kWh
about 3½ days of typical use · about 10½ days of essentials · Ford says up to 3 days
Tesla Cybertruck Premium AWD123 kWh
about 3½ days of typical use · about 10 days of essentials
Chevrolet Silverado EV WT Standard Range 4WD119 kWh
about 3 days of typical use · about 9½ days of essentials
Cadillac Lyriq Luxury RWD102 kWh
about 2½ days of typical use · about 8 days of essentials
Kia EV9 Light Long Range RWD99.8 kWh
about 2½ days of typical use · about 8 days of essentials
Ford F-150 Lightning XLT Standard Range98 kWh
about 2½ days of typical use · about 8 days of essentials · Ford says up to 2 days
Chevrolet Equinox EV 1LT FWD85 kWh
about 2½ days of typical use · about 7 days of essentials
Chevrolet Blazer EV LT FWD85 kWh
about 2½ days of typical use · about 7 days of essentials

When the outage outlasts the battery, drive to a fast charger and come back — something a generator can't do when the gas stations are dark too.

Owner's note

I drive an F-150 Lightning, and I'm setting it up to back up my house through the 240-volt outlet in the bed and a transfer switch — the middle rung above, not the whole-home system. The truck was bought for driving; the backup came with it.

The honest caveat

Nobody should buy an EV for outage power alone — a portable generator does that job for a fraction of the price. The point is that if an EV fits how you drive, a very large battery comes with it, and for a growing list of models, using it to keep the house warm and the food cold is now a documented, supported option rather than a hack. Check the vehicle's page under “When the power goes out,” or the household planner's used shopping list, which marks the models that can do it.