By Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson

As winds howled and warning messages echoed through southeast Queensland in the lead up to Cyclone Alfred, Richard Barge recharged his electric car and set aside its specialty cable. 

When the lights flickered to black at 10pm last Saturday, his family was ready to turn them back on.

“We didn’t know how long the blackout would last so we connected the fridge first,” he says.

“Once we realised it was using so little power, we plugged in more appliances.”

The household, in Brighton on Brisbane’s northside, used an MG4 – one of a growing number of electric vehicles that offer vehicle-to-load technology.

The feature is being credited with keeping the lights on for many households in Queensland and northern NSW, letting users plug in lights, computers, phones and white goods to vehicle batteries.

But experts say the technology is not widely known and many potential users didn’t find out about it until the cyclone loomed, causing a desperate race for accessories and missed opportunities.

Vehicle-to-load technology, also known as V2L, is a feature in electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, including models from BYD, Ford, Kia, Hyundai and Mitsubishi.

The feature lets users power appliances from the vehicle’s battery by converting direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC) when they plug an adaptor into the vehicle’s charging port.

The Brighton household had this adaptor cable ready when the lights went out on Saturday, Mr Barge says, and what started as a way to save food in the fridge became a way to power lights, smartphones and the family’s television through a 36-hour outage.

“For the price you pay for the cable, it’s good insurance to be able to charge all of your devices, your laptop and your phone, and access the internet,” he told AAP.

“I’m surprised it doesn’t come with the car.”

While Mr Barge purchased his V2L adaptor early, many EV owners in the path of the cyclone were not aware of the feature or prepared to use it until the weather system neared.

For the small team working at EVChargers, in a warehouse in Dandenong, Victoria, that became clear days before the cyclone was forecast to make landfall.

“On Saturday, we were just tidying up … and the printer that spits out package tickets just started printing out one or two every minute,” EVChargers spokesman James Selmes says.

“It didn’t let up. It kept going through the Sunday into Monday and we realised it was Cyclone Alfred getting near the coast.”

Hundreds of electric vehicle owners placed orders for V2L equipment every day in the lead-up to the weather event, Mr Selmes says, and the six-person team worked 12-hour shifts and prioritised orders from the region to meet them.

A large number of orders are still flooding into the business, he says, as EV owners prepare for future events.

While the technology may not be widely known, V2L has appeared in Australian vehicles since 2021 and can power several large appliances for long periods.

Some vehicles output as much as 3.6 kilowatts, which Mr Selmes says is enough to meet the needs of most homes and keep appliances running for several days.

“A typical EV will power your house for two, three or four days, depending on how you use it,” he says.

“It means homeowners can fully utilise the investment they’ve made in their electric vehicle – it’s not just to get them around, it’s also to power their house in times of need.”

Some vehicles will be capable of powering households for up to 10 days using V2L technology, Australian Electric Vehicle Association national president Dr Chris Jones says, as long as users do not try to power several heating and cooling appliances at once.

The recent cyclone could become a coming-of-age moment for V2L technology, he says, as seeing and reading about the real-life experiences could help to demystify its use.

“It’s not like people had to drop the vehicle battery out and rig something up with wires or MacGyver their way into a solution,” Dr Jones says.

“The fact you can just plug something in will make a lot more people think ‘I might go out and pick up an adaptor now because it’s just such a handy feature’.”

Those who do plan to use the technology should try to plan ahead, Mr Selmes says, to avoid being lost in another race for equipment.

“When a natural disaster is about to hit your doorstep, that’s not the time to prepare.

“The best time to fix the roof is not when it’s raining but when it’s sunny.”

CARS WITH VEHICLE-TO-LOAD TECHNOLOGY 

BYD: Atto 3, Seal, Dolphin, Shark 6

Kia: EV5, EV6, EV9, Niro

MG: ZS EV, MG4 

Hyundai: Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6

Ford: F-150 Lightning, Ranger 

Genesis: GV60, GV80

Mitsubishi: Outlander 

GWM: Cannon Alpha 

Renault: 5 E-Tech 

Peng: G6

Zeekr: X