Powering devices in an EV via a 3 pin plug?

Powering devices in an EV via a 3 pin plug?

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Discussion

JQ

Original Poster:

5,838 posts

182 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
Is it possible to power devices via a 3 pin plug in an EV? I've tried googling but just get pages and pages of how to charge an EV via a 3 pin plug.

PetrolHeadInRecovery

95 posts

18 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
JQ said:
Is it possible to power devices via a 3 pin plug in an EV? I've tried googling but just get pages and pages of how to charge an EV via a 3 pin plug.
Supported by quite a few cars now. "EV V2L" should work as a search input.

Aunty Pasty

645 posts

41 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
Depends on whether there's a 3 pin socket in the cabin. The Kia Niro has one but it's not a given that all EVs have one.

kambites

67,810 posts

224 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
There's two ways you can do it:

Some EVs have a three-pin plug somewhere in the cabin.
Some EVs have an adapter you can plug into the charge port.

Many EVs have neither facility.

HTP99

22,798 posts

143 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
Doesn't the Honda E have this feature?

Seems utterly pointless to me and the fact that pretty much no other EV offers it, it would seem the manufacturers feel the same!

PetrolHeadInRecovery

95 posts

18 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
kambites said:
There's two ways you can do it:

Some EVs have a three-pin plug somewhere in the cabin.
Some EVs have an adapter you can plug into the charge port.

Many EVs have neither facility.
Some have both options (Hyundai/KIA/Genesis E-GMP platform cars). IIRC, you could use both at the same time (6.8kW combined power in 220/230V markets). Have personally tried only one at the time, though.

Evanivitch

20,770 posts

125 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
kambites said:
There's two ways you can do it:

Some EVs have a three-pin plug somewhere in the cabin.
Some EVs have an adapter you can plug into the charge port.

Many EVs have neither facility.
4 ways.

Car has a 3-pin port inside (Honda E, Niro etc)

Car has a V2L adapter outside (EV6, MG ZS etc)

12V to 240AC inverter, bought off the shelf. Low power, plug and play.

Hardwired 240VAC inverter to the 12V battery that is repoeered by the traction battery in use (Niro has a "utility mode" that prevents drive but allows full systems power indefinitely).

JQ

Original Poster:

5,838 posts

182 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
Cheers all. It appears my car does not support V2L, so that's a none starter.

HTP99 said:
Seems utterly pointless to me
I'll be in the car all day tomorrow working on my laptop as my wife drives to camping. I'd like to charge said laptop once we get there so I can watch the footy on Sat night. Guess I'll just have to go to the pub to watch it instead. I guess it's not that common an occurrence.


pinchmeimdreamin

10,062 posts

221 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
Can’t you just use a power bank ?

kambites

67,810 posts

224 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
Evanivitch said:
12V to 240AC inverter, bought off the shelf. Low power, plug and play.

Hardwired 240VAC inverter to the 12V battery that is repoeered by the traction battery in use (Niro has a "utility mode" that prevents drive but allows full systems power indefinitely).
Well yeah OK but those two work on ICE vehicles as well (although you'd have to keep the engine running I guess).

kambites

67,810 posts

224 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
HTP99 said:
Seems utterly pointless to me...
I guess it's quite niche but I could see it being useful for people who regularly go camping, for example. It would certainly have been useful for running tools when one of my lodgers used to run a racing car in a very amateur racing series, although I don't think any EV would really cope with towing the racing car around.

For me I guess it's one of those "I might use it once or twice a year if I had it, but I wouldn't base my buying decision on it".

Edited by kambites on Thursday 4th July 17:37

PetrolHeadInRecovery

95 posts

18 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
JQ said:
Cheers all. It appears my car does not support V2L, so that's a none starter.

HTP99 said:
Seems utterly pointless to me
I'll be in the car all day tomorrow working on my laptop as my wife drives to camping. I'd like to charge said laptop once we get there so I can watch the footy on Sat night. Guess I'll just have to go to the pub to watch it instead. I guess it's not that common an occurrence.
With the risk of eliminating the reason to go to the pub, would a 12V -> 240V inverter work? I see the 12V output marked as 180W, so a laptop charger might be at the limit - but perhaps cars without V2L would have higher 12V output?

My wife has had a few 1000km office days using the V2L. Running a vacuum cleaner has been another pointless use case.

JQ

Original Poster:

5,838 posts

182 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
pinchmeimdreamin said:
Can’t you just use a power bank ?
I guess so, but as I own a £60,000 battery on wheels you’d think the manufacturers would make that battery more accessible.



Evanivitch

20,770 posts

125 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
PetrolHeadInRecovery said:
With the risk of eliminating the reason to go to the pub, would a 12V -> 240V inverter work? I see the 12V output marked as 180W, so a laptop charger might be at the limit - but perhaps cars without V2L would have higher 12V output?

My wife has had a few 1000km office days using the V2L. Running a vacuum cleaner has been another pointless use case.
MG V2L is 7000W.

Evanivitch

20,770 posts

125 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
kambites said:
Evanivitch said:
12V to 240AC inverter, bought off the shelf. Low power, plug and play.

Hardwired 240VAC inverter to the 12V battery that is repoeered by the traction battery in use (Niro has a "utility mode" that prevents drive but allows full systems power indefinitely).
Well yeah OK but those two work on ICE vehicles as well (although you'd have to keep the engine running I guess).
Yeah, just the minor inconvenience of the noise and exhaust emissions from running an engine. Minor...

kambites

67,810 posts

224 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
Evanivitch said:
MG V2L is 7000W.
Not with the MG adapter it's not because it has a standard 3-pin plug on the output which is only rated to 13 amps. biggrin

Are type-2 V2L adapters standard? Ie can you buy a "generic" one and expect it to work on any type-2 car which supports V2L?

kambites

67,810 posts

224 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
Evanivitch said:
Yeah, just the minor inconvenience of the noise and exhaust emissions from running an engine. Minor...
I must admit the only time I've ever used one was on a boat and they have rather bigger batteries. smile

Evanivitch

20,770 posts

125 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
kambites said:
Evanivitch said:
MG V2L is 7000W.
Not with the MG adapter it's not because it has a standard 3-pin plug on the output which is only rated to 13 amps. biggrin

Are type-2 V2L adapters standard? Ie can you buy a "generic" one and expect it to work on any type-2 car which supports V2L?
A generic Type2-3-pin is available yes.

To get 7kW you effectively change a jumper cable in an EV charge cable.

https://www.speakev.com/threads/mg4-rocking-7kw-v2...

So yeah, running your house (as an island) off your EV battery.

kambites

67,810 posts

224 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
That certainly looks handy if you live in an area prone to shortish power cuts.

JD

2,813 posts

231 months

Thursday 4th July
quotequote all
JQ said:
I'll be in the car all day tomorrow working on my laptop as my wife drives to camping. I'd like to charge said laptop once we get there so I can watch the footy on Sat night. Guess I'll just have to go to the pub to watch it instead. I guess it's not that common an occurrence.
Sorry if I have missed something hugely obvious, but why can't you just plug your laptop into the USB sockets in your car?

I just plug my laptops into the USB sockets in the car, and they charge?