The Nissan Leaf Сan Power Homes Using Bidirectional Charging

Nissan has approved the first bidirectional charging system for use with its Leaf model in the US.

As The Verge reports, the FE-15 charger by Fermata Energy, which can power homes using the EV’s battery, charge it, and send stored energy back to the grid, is the first system of its kind to earn UL 9741 certification for bidirectional charging solutions.

This technology is known as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), Vehicle-to-Home (V2H), and Vehicle-to-Load (V2L). Back in 2012, Nissan promised its EV would eventually share its stored battery power back to homes or the grid during peak hours or even in emergencies.

Other automakers also have bidirectional charging solutions as well, including Ford’s Intelligent Backup Power feature available for its all-electric F-150 Lightning truck. Hyundai Ioniq 5 and 6 have the V2L feature that can make them great camping companions.

Tesla, on the other hand, is bearish about the concept, pushing instead its dedicated PowerWall battery backup solution — the same one that it scales to the size of virtual power plants.