Ford has made the F-150 Lightning’s bi-directional charging capability a key selling point of the pickup, emphasizing use cases for customers who’d like to use their truck as a backup generator at worksites or for their home.
Enabling EVs to both take and provide a charge has the potential to help utilities manage peaks in demand and even allow their owners to sell electricity back to the grid.
Tesla owners may not need the help.
The carmaker boasts the second-largest US public charging network, with 19 percent of all connectors, and dominates the fast- and ultra-fast segments, with more than half of those connectors in the country, according to BloombergNEF estimates. Drew Baglino, Tesla’s senior vice president of powertrain and energy engineering, said in October that the company planned to triple the size of its supercharger network over the next two years.
Of course, Fords have already come to Tesla owners’ aid in another way. Ford Transit vans are among the models Tesla uses as mobile service vehicles.