GM letting some EV owners sell electricity back to the US power grid (only 4.61 years left)

Fox Business ^ | 6/11/26 | Eric Revell

[Libloather]

General Motors on Tuesday announced it's releasing a software update that allows some electric vehicle (EV) owners to send power back to the electric grid.

The update allows owners of GM's vehicle-to-home energy system, which allows the EV to power the home during a blackout, the expanded capability of sending electricity to the power grid.

Owners of the system would be able to sell power from their vehicle back to utility providers at times when demand is high, with GM getting a portion of the proceeds. EVs are viewed as an untapped resource for balancing the electric grid to meet surging demand from AI data centers as well as extreme weather events.

GM said that it alone has over 250,000 bidirectional capable vehicles on U.S. roads at this time, while it will include the vehicle-to-grid technology in all planned future EVs.

It said that the quarter-million GM EVs that are capable of vehicle-to-grid energy transfers have the storage capacity to help power 120,000 homes for up to one week.

GM said it's actively testing vehicle-grid integration technology through a partnership with Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), and it expects that, by 2030, there will be over 52,000 GM EVs actively participating in grid-balancing protocols.

It's also conducting tests in Michigan with DTE Energy, using the homes of GM employees to grow reliable backup capacity in a way that suits the preferences of home and EV owners, which GM Energy Vice President Wade Sheffer said is a "win for customers, automakers and utilities."

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TOPICS: Local News; Outdoors; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: electricity; ev; gm; grid

[Libloather]

Why not just keep it and run ya own dang stuff with it? Granny on the exercise bike helps everyone.

[V_TWIN]

“bidirectional capable vehicles”

Do they get their own special month of recognition as well?

[Dr. Sivana]

My understanding is that all of these EV batteries have X number of cycles before they deteriorate, like many rechargeable batteries.

I do not know if I want to use my cycles to move power from and to the grid. Ideally, an EV should be simpler to own, not more complicated.

[RWGinger]

Nicely done.

[DugwayDuke]

so this lets your vehicle draw power from the grid for a charge.
Then you can use your vehicle can sell the power back to the grid for a charge.
Then you can use the grid to recharge your vehicle for a charge.

That’s three different things that cost you money. The only thing that benefits is the grid operator. You’ve incurred three different costs just to get back to where you began.
‘

[Tell It Right]

Agreed. As an EV owner I wouldn't sell power to the grid, which would add wear to the EV battery, unless the utility was paying a ton per kWh.

My EV (not GM, not Tesla) has a 10 year / 100K warranty on the battery and other components that would be like a drive train warranty on gas cars. The warranty guarantees a linear degradation of battery range across years to 50% range in the last year. Most EV's have a battery warranties like that. Mine so far has no noticeable range degradation (4 years, 86K miles).

However, my solar batteries for the home have a much different warranty: 7,000 cycles (one per day = 19 years). And their suggested top charge is 100% (not 80% like most EV batteries) with the similar discharge floor (suggested to stop at 20%, so 80% discharge daily). Even then I wouldn't use solar batteries to sell power to the grid unless the payback was extremely high per kWh.

At best I'd get 1/3rd of what it costs me to buy per kWh (4.9¢ / kWh on weekday summer afternoons, vs 15-16¢ / kWh when I buy power from the grid, after paying fuel surcharge rate and state tax). Even then there are extra fees for the privilege to sell power to the grid. For just about anyone it's best to just not sell power to the grid, not pay the extra fees, and just reduce how much power you pull from the grid overall. Since an EV battery isn't an external source of power like solar, just keep the charge in the battery for tomorrow's trip.

[George from New England]

Nothing more than useless marketing angle

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“...grid-balancing protocols.”

How very ‘Animal Farm’ of them.

Looks like GM finally figured out what Facebook has known since Day One. Your customers are the product!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“...grid-balancing protocols.”

How very ‘Animal Farm’ of them.

Looks like GM finally figured out what Facebook has known since Day One. Your customers are the product!

[TangoLimaSierra]

I do not know if I want to use my cycles to move power from and to the grid.

Agreed. But, I do like the backup power option for the house.

[Buffalo Bob]

Big Tech is behind these efforts so they can use them to help power their data center infrastructure when needed.

Google recently signed an agreement with Voltus to create a virtual power plant (VPP) that can aggregate thousands of distributed energy resources, including home batteries, smart thermostats, EV chargers, and other flexible loads.

[not in the club]

GM said that it alone has over 250,000 bidirectional capable vehicles on U.S. roads

Does GM still "have" a vehicle if they have sold it?

[mikey_hates_everything]

Owners of the system would be able to sell power from their vehicle back to utility providers at times when demand is high, with GM getting a portion of the proceeds.

”Their vehicle”… What do they mean “with GM getting a portion of the proceeds”? GM gets nothing if it’s my car.