Fwd: EVs kept the lights on

[Loretta Lohman]

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Power outages — or the threat of them — are an increasing fact of American life due to extreme weather and surging energy demand. The solution to getting through them might be sitting in your driveway. A growing number of electric vehicles are able to feed power back to homes and even individual appliances. Today’s newsletter looks at how so-called bidirectional charging helped keep the lights on and the hot water flowing amid the recent US cold snap. Plus, a scoop on how Tesla is moving forward with its plans to build out its solar panel supply chain. Want all the latest stories on the energy transition? Subscribe to Bloomberg News. Power up By Kyle Stock West Monroe, Louisiana, has experienced some of the nastiest weather in the US of late, but Keith McGraw, who has lived in the rural town for all of his 46 years, was ready. On the third day of a recent blackout, while his neighbors were struggling to find gas for their generators, McGraw was powering almost all of his house with his Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck. McGraw was even able to fire up his oven to satisfy a pizza craving. “We were like ‘Screw it,’” he explained, ”‘we got electricity and we can run all day long.’” During a multiday, weather-related power outage, McGraw relied on his Ford F-150 Lightning to keep the lights on at home. Courtesy of Keith McGraw As ice, snow and bitter cold stressed America’s power infrastructure in recent days, electric vehicles have filled in as emergency power sources, shifting from transportation to 6,000-pound backup batteries for a growing share of drivers. US drivers have now bought about 630,000 electric cars and trucks capable of discharging electricity — what’s known as bidirectional charging — at levels strong enough to power a home or apartment, according to Cox Automotive and company sales reports. That figure is rising quickly, too. One in five EVs purchased in the past quarter had so-called V2H — or vehicle-to-home capabilities — and analysts say the feature will soon be table stakes for those hoping to sell an electric car. At the moment, 14 of the 70 or so EV models available in the US offer bidirectional charging. Every auto in the General Motors Co. product line can now power a home in a pinch, as will high-end models from Hyundai Motor Co., Kia Corp. and Volvo Car AB. That share is likely to climb in coming months. BMW Group has promised bidirectional charging in its new iX3, a pledge echoed by Tesla Inc. for its next Model Y and Rivian Automotive Inc. regarding its R2 SUV expected to hit the market in the next few months. And although Ford has pulled the plug on its Lightning pickup, there are roughly 101,000 of them in US driveways, many of which have served as tiny power plants during this winter’s brutal weather. Ford sells a system that connects its vehicles to a home’s electrical panel — a product CEO Jim Farley has crowed about on LinkedIn. The systems, which detect outages and switch power automatically, kick on about four times a year, on average, but last week, as outages hit parts of the country, Ford said usage quadrupled. To be sure, weathering a storm in an EV takes some planning. It helps to charge in advance and cold weather can slowly sap a battery. Still, in places like rural Louisiana, finding gas in an extended storm can be a challenge, too. Even the millions of EVs that aren’t capable of powering an entire house are still proving useful. Many contemporary EVs have so-called vehicle-to-load capabilities, which essentially turns the vehicle’s charging port into an electrical outlet. A few years ago, a doctor in Texas famously used his Rivian to power surgical tools for a vasectomy. Kim Mestre, a remote worker in Alexandria, Virginia, has simpler needs. Last week, she was planning to use her 2025 Hyundai Ioniq to grind coffee beans and get the electric kettle boiling. “I don’t care about the TV and the food we could put outside,” she explained. “For me, it was: Charge my phone and give me coffee, that’s all I really need in life.” Read the full story to see what comes next for bidirectional charging. Subscribe to the weekly Hyperdrive newsletter, your guide to the future of cars. Tough times $19.5 billion The amount of charges Ford took, tied to a sweeping overhaul of its EV business after struggling for years to make it profitable. Whether expanding bidirectional charging can help increase sales remains to be seen. Cutting costs “We’ll start to be able to go to electric fleets and reduce the cost straight up.” Rick Wilmer Chief executive officer, ChargePoint The charging company is working on building out a new kind of station that will pump power to and from vehicles. That could be particularly beneficial to fleet operators, from rideshares to delivery companies. Tesla’s solar plans By Ed Ludlow, Mark Chediak and Dana Hull Tesla isn’t waiting around to see if Elon Musk’s 100-gigawatt solar ambition is feasible — it’s already acting on it. The company is evaluating multiple sites across the US to begin manufacturing solar cells, according to people familiar with the matter, turning what sounded like a moonshot just weeks ago into an active industrial push. One component of the plan: expanding production at its Buffalo, New York, factory, said the people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Capacity there could reach 10 gigawatts, they said, which would be equivalent to 10 nuclear plants. Longer-term, another scenario would involve building a second facility in New York state, one of the people said. A solar panel canopy at the Tesla Inc. Supercharger station in California. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg Arizona and Idaho are among other locations under consideration, the people said. The effort is being led by Tesla Vice President Bonne Eggleston, who recently posted on LinkedIn he was hiring for domestic solar-manufacturing jobs. AI’s insatiable appetite for electricity is again spurring Musk to prioritize solar after the company’s earlier efforts failed to realize the ambitions he outlined. Solar cells are thin wafers used in the manufacture of solar panels. Musk and representatives for Tesla didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. “We can neither confirm nor deny companies we are currently working with and do not discuss open or potential projects,” said Jeremy Chase, tourism and marketing administrator for the Idaho Department of Commerce, in an email. Read the full story to see how the solar manufacturing industry is faring. Putting a price on nature By Olivia Rudgard Nature was supposed to be the next big business opportunity. But despite warnings that degradation poses a material risk, calls to finance protecting the natural world are largely falling on deaf ears. That was the message at a conference for business and finance organized by the insurance company Aviva and the UK government’s environment department, happening in concert with a separate meeting this week where scientists and diplomats are hashing out an assessment of how businesses depend on biodiversity in Manchester. Coffee plants affected by drought in Brazil. Photographer: Tuane Fernandes/Bloomberg The most dramatic example is the Cali Fund, which was launched a year ago to attract voluntary contributions from businesses that rely in part on biological data for their products. UK Nature Minister Mary Creagh opened the Aviva-organized conference hailing the first investment into the fund in November by British startup TierraViva AI. But that investment was very modest – only $1,000. That didn’t dampen Creagh’s enthusiasm: It’s all “still at the very, very early stages,” she said in an interview. “It is crystal clear now that there is financial materiality” if nature is lost, said Nicola Ranger, executive director of Earth Capital Nexus at the London School of Economics, during Wednesday’s closing panel. But, she added, less than half of firms that analyze their exposure under frameworks like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive conclude that a damaged environment is something that would affect the viability of their business. That means they don’t think it’s worthwhile to spend money on protecting it. “We don’t think that’s supported by the evidence,” she said. On Monday, the main conference, a meeting of scientists and diplomats from all over the world, will add more evidence to that pile with a report on the interdependencies of business and biodiversity, the culmination of almost three years of work by 80 experts from all over the world. Subscribe to Green Daily to get our take on the forthcoming report on biodiversity and business risks delivered straight to your inbox. This week’s Zero Major economies around the world are grappling with electricity grids under stress from equipment bottlenecks and workforce shortages. What can be done to solve it? This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi talks with Manoj Sinha, CEO of Husk Power Systems, about distributed energy resources and their potential to bring electricity to where it is needed most — from energy-poor regions in the Global South, to energy-hungry data centers in rich countries. Listen now, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or YouTube to get new episodes of Zero every Thursday. More from Green Stellantis is taking €22 billion ($26 billion) in charges to reverse course on its electric vehicle strategy, one of the biggest such writedowns among its peers, prompting a record plunge in the Jeep and Fiat owner’s shares. The writedowns, covering the cost of canceling EV models as well as compensating suppliers, follow similar announcements from carmakers ranging from Ford and General Motors to Porsche. Stellantis shares cratered as much as 24% in Milan, cutting the company’s market value by more than €5 billion, to about €18 billion. The charges significantly exceeded analyst projections. Read the full story. Newly manufactured vans at Stellantis’ Vauxhall van factory in Luton, UK in 2024. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg The US Congress has directed a government agency to study the carbon intensity of certain industrial products exported to the European Union. Cape Town will call for tenders to implement several major projects that aim to cut electricity costs and bolster water security. Large Japanese polluters are buying carbon credits on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s voluntary market before the country launches a mandatory program. 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