Renault Scenic battery keeps a family's fridges running through a 30-hour blackout

A family's half-term holiday in the Lake District was rescued from a power cut by the electric car they had brought with them. Storm Boelo knocked out the electricity supply to their rented house at the start of the break, and the household turned to their Renault Scenic, using its vehicle-to-load (V2L) function to keep essential appliances running for around 30 hours.

V2L allows an electric vehicle to power external devices. The feature plugs into the car's charging port and provides a standard three-pin socket, so the car effectively works as a portable power source. For the author's family it was the first time they had used it, and the car's large battery, rated at 87kWh, proved more than enough for the task. Household use typically runs at roughly 6.8 to 9.4kWh a day, so the battery was far from being drained by the demand placed on it.

There were limits. The Scenic's V2L output is capped at 3.7kW, and Renault's handbook advises against connecting devices that draw more than 16 amps, or 3.6kW. That ruled out the ovens, which demand too much power for standard cables. Instead the family ran two fridges, some lamps and charging for devices. Over the full 30 hours only about 8 per cent of the battery was used.

The setup was not entirely trouble-free. Overnight the car shut off its output, and the author found that the fridges, once they had reached their set temperature, drew less current, which caused the load to drop below the point the car needed to stay active. Keeping the lamps switched on was reported to stop the shutdown, a workaround the family found by trial and error.

V2L is now common on models from Hyundai, Kia, Renault and many Chinese manufacturers. A related feature, vehicle-to-home (V2H), can supply a whole house but needs a dedicated isolation switch and is more widespread in the United States than in Britain. Some Chinese models, such as the Changan Deepal range, offer V2L outputs of 6kW or more, well above the Scenic's cap.

John Fox, chief operating officer of Voltempo, said the feature's greatest value lies in emergencies, noting that otherwise the batteries sit idle. For this family, a car bought for everyday driving became a practical backup when the grid failed, keeping food cold and lights on until the power returned after the storm.

Source: autocar.co.uk

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George Kensington

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George Kensington covers public affairs, politics, business, culture and daily news for Nobel. The role focuses on verification, context, and clear explanations for readers.

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