Bidirectional charging is still in hypothetical or developmental stages for many automaker companies. But Ford has already started working with California-based utility company PG&E to take this technology to the next level. These two amazing companies are trying to introduce a functionality where the F-150 lightning electric pickup truck can be able to support the electrical grid.

Bidirectional Charging
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The new partnership

The partnership between Ford and PG&E might bring an excellent feature to turn electric vehicles into power banks. This collaborative project has already planned to initiate its first installation of Intelligent Backup Power hardware. The companies are going to apply modern technology for the F-150 lightning this spring. The special feature will be capable of powering the home for up to 10 days.

charging
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Introduction of new technology

Though the project is still in a very early stage, it is creating huge excitement among electric car users. The company mentioned the initiative as “an early adopter opportunity” in “a small number of customers’ homes”. So, the features might go to implement in a few homes as a trial project. Then companies will consider the future of the project based on the result. If everything goes positive and they will make the features available to the larger users.

Exploration of the functionality

This intelligent backup power bank featured truck is the first electric vehicle in the USA that is capable to perform such a great task. It will officially introduce the OEM-supported equipment for the people. PG&E is responsible to explore the functionality of the system. They will check the interconnections of this bidirectional charging system that has been used to support resiliency during grid outages.

electric cars
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What’s coming next

Ford and PG&E are yet to explore details on additional hardware for this research project. The lightning configuration requires an 80-amp charge station with a dark-start battery and transfer switch. PG&E said they are expecting to learn more about the overall customer experience which can open future collaborations on a larger scale. On the other hand, Ford prefers to use the hardware of Sunrun. So, it is thought that the actual home configurations will vary greatly among Lightning customers.