Why car companies are pushing home energy products

High electricity bill? Frequent power outages? Your car company wants to help.

In their quest to sell EVs, automakers are turning to a new business line: home energy products. They see multiple benefits to getting into the energy management game, from sweetening the proposition of EV ownership to creating new revenue streams.

Research suggests that consumers are receptive to the idea: Escalent’s 2025 Home Energy Solutions DeepDive report identified opportunities for automakers and utilities to team up on home energy solutions, and found strong new-car buyer trust in automakers to “manage the production and use of energy in their home.” More than two in five (43%) would even buy electricity from their vehicle brand.

Automakers are marketing products like bidirectional chargers and stationary battery storage solutions to customers as ways to save money and become less reliant on the whims of the power grid—and offering up leasing options and incentives to sweeten the deal.

“The real difference is, when can an EV do things that an ICE car can’t do? That’s mobile battery storage—a battery on wheels. The ability to tap into that battery storage, either to power your home for backup or to send power to the grid for rate arbitrage, all those kinds of things,” Loren McDonald, CEO and chief analyst at Chargeonomics, told Tech Brew.

“What we’ve seen is that most of the automakers just didn’t make that bidirectional charging capability available on their vehicles,” he added. “And it’s really just starting to explode in the last year. Most of the new models that are going to be coming out, and the next-generation ones, are going to have that capability.”

Enhancing value: Less than two years ago, GM stood up a business called GM Energy that now offers vehicle-to-home (V2H) charging products in all 50 states.

“GM Energy was established to break down barriers to EV ownership by expanding access to reliable, convenient charging—both at home and in public—and empowering customers with greater control over their home energy use,” Wade Sheffer, VP of GM Energy, wrote in a blog post.

Since January, GM Energy saw 30% MoM revenue growth and a 5x increase in sales for charging and energy products. Sheffer noted that 70% of GM EV purchases also include a GM Energy product. The division’s product portfolio includes bidirectional chargers, a stationary home energy battery storage product called PowerBank, and charging adapters.

Sheffer told Tech Brew that GM Energy’s goal is to help customers “truly [unlock] the true value proposition of owning an EV.”

“We have made it really simple. The portfolio is simple. The ability to sell is simple. The ability to install is simple. The ability to use our products is very simple,” he said. “So that’s the messaging.”

As the EV market enters a rockier period following the expiration of federal tax credits that made it cheaper to buy a battery-powered vehicle, Sheffer said GM Energy will evolve with the market. One of the ways it’s doing that is by introducing leasing options in response to customer demand. GM also is promoting its home backup power products to non-EV drivers, and, in partnership with utilities like California’s PG&E, piloting incentive programs that offset the costs of installing V2H charging equipment.

Coming home: For years, McDonald said, automakers primarily focused on making the public charging experience easier for customers. Now that public charging deployments are growing and stations are more reliable, he’s seen the focus shift to home charging and home energy management.

“They’ve done it because they realize that’s key to driving sales of EVs,” he said.

McDonald has rounded up the auto industry’s home charging and home energy management products, showing how widespread they are today. Numerous automakers offer free charger installation or incentives. Companies like Kia, Honda, Ford, GM, Lucid, Rivian, Tesla, Volkswagen, and Volvo offer (or plan to offer) V2H charging capabilities, and a dozen new electric models are equipped for bidirectional charging.

Automakers are increasingly putting these solutions front and center in their outreach to customers. In a recent blog post, Ford touted the ability to turn the electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck into “a partner in your home energy management,” and argued that “the obvious perks of electric vehicle ownership” are now being bolstered by other benefits like using them to earn financial incentives from electric companies. In a reflection of market conditions, Ford is reportedly weighing whether to pull the plug on the F-150 Lightning, production of which has been paused due to an aluminum shortage.

Ford’s portfolio includes a rewards program that helps customers get financial benefits from off-peak charging, a backup power program that enables F-150 Lightning owners to use their truck for mobile power generation, and most recently, a home power management system through which customers can buy a bundle of products to charge their F-150 Lightning when electricity prices are lower and then use that power from the truck’s battery to power their home during peak hours.

Ford has also promoted real-world examples of the F-150 Lightning’s battery being used as backup power during outages.

“Your car doesn’t do anything most of its life,” Ryan O’Gorman, senior manager of Ford’s energy services business strategy and delivery, said during a recent demonstration of the home power management system. “Now it’s working for you. It’s a unique utilization of the vehicle that you can’t do with other types of vehicles.”

What’s next: With managed charging now an industry norm, McDonald expects to see increasing focus on V2H.

“The real value proposition for vehicle-to-home is to power your home for a while when there’s power outages, which are growing greatly,” he said. “The automakers see that as a huge value proposition and see that as another reason people might want to buy an EV. The problem with it is that it’s still way too expensive.”

Until V2H systems are more in line with the cost of buying a generator, McDonald sees the tech primarily taking off among wealthy consumers. Ultimately, automakers want to offer vehicle-to-grid technology, which enables EVs to discharge energy to the power grid during peak demand. But experts and industry stakeholders say it’ll take years for the tech to scale, largely because of the effort required to get utilities on board.

“When it’s common that you can actually use your EV parked in your garage to back up your home, to do rate arbitrage and stuff like that, I think that’s the game-changer,” McDonald said. “But it’s going to probably be later this decade before that’s commonplace.”