Using Our Vehicles for Backup Power: Ford’s F-150 Lightning Heralds a New Age for Resilient Backup Power Systems

The media event on May 19, 2021 introducing the all-electric version of Ford’s iconic F-150 pickup truck was one of the biggest news stories in resilience and back-up power this year. The F-150 Lightning, which will be available in Spring 2022, has an onboard inverter and AC outlets allowing it to serve as a backup or mobile power source.

I’ve had a plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt for six years and love it. I reached out to General Motors to ask about tweaking the vehicle to allow its use for backup power, but the company hasn’t had the foresight to pursue that. The GM mechanic at the dealership in Brattleboro where I bought it told me that it would be an easy design tweak to provide onboard AC power, but that the company doesn’t want to go there.

Even Tesla, which has pretty-much owned the EV market since 2012—and makes the PowerWall backup battery system for homes—hasn’t seen fit to incorporate backup power functionality into its vehicles. Now Ford has taken the leap!

What the F-150 Lightning will do for the image of electric vehicles (EVs) is huge. The F-Series has been the best-selling line of trucks in the U.S. for 44 years, and in recent years it has been the best-selling vehicle of any type. Big pickup trucks appeal to a different demographic than a Tesla or Prius, and if the Lightning is popular with truck buyers it may pull a significant segment of the U.S. vehicle market over to EVs more broadly. The fact that the truck looks pretty much like the standard F-150 probably helps.

Why backup power from EVs makes so much sense

The 400 cubic foot front truck (Frunk) has 120V AC outlets for mobile power needs. Photo: Ford Motor Company

Conventional backup generators usually sit there doing nothing 99% of the time. Whole-house, fuel-fired backup generators typically cost from $5,000 to well over $10,000, and they are only as good as the fuel powering them. Diesel fuel, propane, and gasoline can run out, which is what happened within 24 to 48 hours following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005, when fuel trucks could not get into the City and pipelines were turned off. Diesel fuel and gasoline both have limited lifespans in equipment, so there needs to be a protocol in place for using stored fuel and replenishing it. Natural gas generators are fine as long as the natural gas pipelines aren’t shut down—but during natural disasters, those natural gas lines often are shut down, due to fire risk.

And with all of these fuel-fired generators there is also the issue of them being reliant on fossil fuel, which carries a heavy carbon footprint and is far from sustainable. For these reasons, I’ve been a fan of battery-based backup power. The Tesla PowerWall is the best-known example of these systems, but there are plenty of others, both large and small. In this article, I wrote about small, portable lithium-ion backup battery systems. Even if battery-based backup power systems are charged using non-renewable electricity from the utility grid, that power grid can be transitioned to renewal electricity, so it’s a step in the transition to a renewable-energy future.

The problem with stand-alone backup battery systems is that those batteries are just sitting there 99% of the time—like a backup generator. That’s why I’ve long been a fan of using EV propulsion batteries for backup power. Rather than just sitting idle the vast majority of the time, EV batteries are used whenever the EV is driven. When the vehicle is on the road, the batteries power the vehicle, and with the right controls the same batteries can be used as backup power back at the house.

Why utility companies will like EVs with bi-directional charging

Bi-directional charging refers to an ability for electricity to flow from the EV charger into the vehicle, or to flow in the opposite direction: from the vehicle to the house or utility grid. Once we start offering this capability in EVs, we open up the possibility for utility companies to make use of these mobile battery systems to more efficiently manage their power grids. Green Mountain Power, the utility company serving most of my state of Vermont, is at the forefront of these discussions.

The idea is that your utility company could make it economically attractive for you to charge your EV at night or at other times when the utility company is generating more electricity than it needs—and, in exchange, the utility company would have the ability to draw power from your EV during peak consumption periods when the company is paying top-dollar for peak power. It can be a win-win. You would be able to charge your EV using low-cost, off-peak power, and the utility company would be able to even out their demand curve and spend less on peak power.

Enter the F-150 Lightning

The all-electric F-150 Lightning drive train and batteries, which are installed low in the vehicle for added stability. Image: Ford Motor Company

I believe the F-150 Lightning will be the first EV in the U.S. to provide bi-directional charging. It will be configured to serve as a backup power source—or a mobile power source for construction equipment, entertainment, lighting, and other needs. I’ll say more about that, but let’s start with the truck itself.

As an all-electric pick-up truck, the F-150 is awesome. Depending on the package, it has an EPA-predicted range of 230 to 300 miles. It has a maximum payload of 2,000 pounds and a towing capacity of 10,000 pounds (though when towing heavy loads the range will certainly drop). It has an amazing 563 horsepower and 775 lb-ft of torque, and it can accelerate 0-60 in less than 5 seconds (with the larger, extended-range battery)! This makes it the fastest full-size pick-up truck, which is likely to get the attention of the testosterone-amped segment of the truck market!

The truck will use a different type of battery than is used by Tesla and most other EVs. According to Green Car Reports, they are “Nickel-9” NCM batteries, which are approximately 90% nickel, 5% cobalt, and 5% manganese. The batteries are being produced in Georgia through a joint venture of SK Innovation and Ford. SK Innovation claims that the batteries offer higher energy density, longer range, and a better environmental performance than lithium-ion.

While the announced starting price is just under $40,000 for the standard four-wheel-drive, 5-passenger crew-cab, F-150 Lightning, the longer-range battery system, offering the 300 miles of range, will add $10,000 to the price, according to Green Car Reports, and luxury packages can boost the fully loaded cost to as much as $90,000.

Significantly, as with EVs in general, lifetime maintenance costs should be considerably less expensive with the F-150 Lightning. Ford estimates 40% savings, compared with gasoline-powered models.

But what excites me most about the F-150 Lightning are the resilience features that are incorporated into the vehicle. The entry-level model offers 2.4 kW of AC power, and higher-end versions offer 9.6 kW of power—enough to power an entire typical house. The actual capacity of the extended-range battery package has not been announced yet by Ford, but the company says the extended-range truck will store enough electricity to power a typical house for about three days, assuming average consumption of 30 kWh per day (so the battery capacity must be at least 90 kWh).

Providing mobile, jobsite power with the F-150 Lightning. Photo: Ford Motor Company

Along with serving backup power needs, this mobile power source can be used by small construction companies for job-site power, by tailgaters grilling burgers and keeping beer cold before the ballgame, and campers who feel a need to air-condition their tents.

Ford will offer several charging options that affect backup power use and charging times. With the 240-volt, 80-amp Ford Charge Station Pro and a home management system that will be available, the F-150 Lightning will automatically kick in to power your house during a power outage, and once power is restored, the system automatically reverts to charging its battery.

The company’s lower-cost 48-amp, 240-volt charger will charge the vehicle in 10 to 13 hours, depending on the battery size. The 32-amp Form Mobile Charger, which comes standard with the F-150 Lightning, allows charging from either 120V or 240V outlets. Like most other EVs on the market, DC fast charging is also an option using a separate port on the vehicle. A 150 kW DC charger will give the extended-range F-150 Lightning 54 miles of range in about 10 minutes and raise the battery charge level from 15% to 80% in about 40 minutes, according to Green Car Reports.

Bringing the industry along

The F-150 Lightning will have a 10,000-pound towing capacity. Photo: Ford Motor Company

My hope is that the F-150 Lightning will play as big a role as the Tesla Model S in revolutionizing the auto industry. First, it will appeal to a new set of EV drivers, demonstrating the advantages of electric. And second, it will demonstrate to the auto industry that EVs with bi-directional charging can serve as backup generators—helping us become more resilient. In both of these ways, it will move us in the direction of sustainability. More information on the F-150 Lightning is available on the Ford website.

All that said, for the vast majority of us, a big truck with 10,000 pounds of towing capacity isn’t really necessary. I look forward to backup power options being built into all EVs and plug-in hybrids.

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Along with founding the Resilient Design Institute in 2012, Alex is founder of BuildingGreen, Inc. To keep up with his latest articles and musings, you can sign up for his Twitter feed. To receive e-mail notices of new blogs, sign up at the top of the page.

David W. Orr, Ph.D

David W. Orr is Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies & Politics, Emeritus. He also served as “Counselor to the President” of Oberlin College for ten years. He is the author of eight books, including Dangerous Years: Climate Change and the Long Emergency (Yale, 2016) and Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse (Oxford, 2009) and co-editor of three others. He has authored over 220 articles, reviews, book chapters, and professional publications. In the past twenty-five years he has served as a board member or adviser to ten foundations and on the Boards of many organizations including the Rocky Mountain Institute, Bioneers, and the Aldo Leopold Foundation.

He is currently a Trustee of the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, Children and Nature Network, and the WorldWatch Institute. He has been awarded nine honorary degrees and a dozen other awards including a Lyndhurst Prize, a National Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation, leadership awards from the U.S. Green Building Council (2014) and from Second Nature (2012), and a lifetime achievement award from Green Energy Ohio and the North American Association for Environmental Education. He has lectured at hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Asia. He headed the effort to design, fund, and build the Adam Joseph Lewis Center, which was named by an AIA panel in 2010 as “the most important green building of the past thirty years,” as “one of thirty milestone buildings of the twentieth century” by the U.S. Department of Energy, and as one of “52 game-changing buildings of the past 170 years” by the editors of Building Design +Construction in January, 2016. He was instrumental in the design and funding of the Peter B. Lewis Gateway Center. He is the founder of the Oberlin Project and a founder of the journal Solutions. His current work is on the state of American democracy.