Our Breakdown on the Ford F-150 Lightning touched on its Intelligent Backup Power feature without going deep on it — this is the dedicated piece. "My EV can power my house during an outage" is one of the more overstated claims in EV marketing, because it usually isn't true in the way it sounds. Almost every new EV can power small devices through a household outlet. Only one can currently, formally, actually back up your house in Canada.

Quick answer: Vehicle-to-load (V2L) — powering small devices or appliances off your car's battery through a standard outlet — is available now on several EVs sold in Canada, including the Ford F-150 Lightning (9.6 kW via Pro Power Onboard), Hyundai Ioniq 5 Long Range (3.6 kW), Kia EV9 Land AWD (3.6 kW), Genesis GV60 (3.6 kW), and Chevrolet Silverado EV RST (10.2 kW). Vehicle-to-home (V2H) — automatically backing up your entire house through your electrical panel during an outage — is a different, far more involved capability, and as of mid-2026 only one vehicle has a certified, purchasable Canadian V2H system: the Ford F-150 Lightning Extended Range, using Ford's Charge Station Pro paired with a Home Integration System. Hyundai, Kia, and Chevrolet's V2H capability for the Ioniq 5, EV9, and Silverado EV remains on the roadmap rather than shipping here. A full V2H installation, including the panel work, typically runs $9,000-$15,000 CAD.

V2L vs. V2H: the distinction that actually matters

These two terms get used almost interchangeably in casual conversation, and the gap between what they actually mean is the single most important thing to understand before shopping for this feature. Vehicle-to-load is simple: your car has one or more standard household outlets (or an outlet adapter for the charge port itself), and you can plug things into it directly — a job site tool, a camping fridge, a portable heater, string lights at a tailgate. It requires no home electrical work, no permits, and no additional hardware beyond what came with the car or a simple adapter. It's genuinely useful, but it's fundamentally the same idea as a gas generator you happen to already own.

Vehicle-to-home is a different order of capability. It means your car's battery is wired, through dedicated hardware, into your home's electrical panel, so that during a grid outage the system automatically (or with manual switchover) detects the loss of power, isolates your house from the grid for safety, and starts feeding your home's circuits from the car's battery — running your fridge, furnace blower, well pump, lights, and outlets the way a whole-home generator would. That requires an inverter capable of exporting meaningful power back through your panel, a transfer switch, and in most cases professional electrical installation with permits. It's a real backup-power system, not an extension cord.

What's available in Canada right now: V2L

Several EVs sold in Canada currently offer V2L capability, and the power output varies meaningfully by model:

  • Ford F-150 Lightning — Pro Power Onboard, up to 9.6 kW on the Extended Range battery (7.2 kW on Standard Range), by far the highest output of any V2L system currently available, with multiple outlets built into the bed and cabin.
  • Chevrolet Silverado EV RST — 10.2 kW via its Power Source system, similarly aimed at job-site and outdoor use.
  • Hyundai Ioniq 5 (Long Range) — 3.6 kW, via both an interior outlet and an external V2L adapter that plugs into the charge port.
  • Kia EV9 (Land AWD and above) — 3.6 kW, same basic implementation as the Ioniq 5's V2L system given the shared E-GMP platform.
  • Genesis GV60 — 3.6 kW, also E-GMP-based.

At 3.6 kW, you can comfortably run a fridge, some lighting, and a laptop or two — genuinely useful for camping, a tailgate, or a short outage where you're running an extension cord to a few key items, but nowhere near enough to power a house. At 9.6-10.2 kW (Lightning and Silverado EV), you're in a different category — enough to run a meaningful chunk of a home's essential circuits through extension cords and a manual transfer setup, even without a formal V2H installation, which is part of why Lightning owners in particular have used Pro Power Onboard informally for outage backup even before Ford's dedicated V2H system existed.

What's actually available as V2H: just the Lightning, for now

As of mid-2026, the Ford F-150 Lightning Extended Range is the only EV in Canada with a certified, purchasable, whole-home V2H system: Ford's Charge Station Pro (a bidirectional home charging unit, distinct from a standard Level 2 charger) paired with a Home Integration System that handles the transfer switching and panel integration. Properly installed, it will automatically detect a grid outage and begin powering the home's essential circuits within seconds, drawing down the truck's battery — Ford has stated a fully charged Extended Range Lightning can power an average home for multiple days under typical, non-extreme-heating-or-cooling loads.

Hyundai, Kia, and Chevrolet have all signaled V2H is coming for the Ioniq 5, EV9, and Silverado EV respectively — described in various roadmap and product communications as "planned" or "in development" — but as of this writing, none of these have a certified, sold V2H system available to Canadian buyers. The Volvo EX90 has also been discussed in the context of future bidirectional home capability without a confirmed Canadian V2H product yet. If you're specifically buying a used EV for its V2H potential today rather than its V2L capability, the Lightning Extended Range is currently the only real option — everything else is a "maybe, eventually" rather than a feature you can actually use.

What it actually costs

Ford's own Lightning V2H bundle — the Charge Station Pro plus Home Integration System hardware — runs roughly $5,500-$7,200 CAD before installation. That's the equipment cost alone; it doesn't include what's very often necessary alongside it: an electrical panel upgrade or a dedicated backup sub-panel to properly isolate the circuits you want backed up, permitting, and licensed electrician labour for the transfer-switch and panel integration work. Once all of that is factored in, a realistic total installed cost for a full V2H setup lands in the $9,000-$15,000 CAD range, with the spread driven largely by how much panel work your specific house needs — an older home with an undersized or outdated panel will sit at the higher end.

That's a genuinely substantial cost, and it's worth comparing honestly against the alternative: a quality whole-home standby generator (natural gas or propane, professionally installed) typically runs in a similar or sometimes lower range for comparable backup capacity, without requiring you to own a specific truck. The case for V2H isn't that it's the cheapest way to get backup power — it's that if you were already planning to buy a Lightning Extended Range, or already own one, the backup capability comes from equipment you're layering onto a vehicle you wanted anyway, rather than a single-purpose generator sitting idle 99% of the time.

The bottom line

Don't shop for "vehicle-to-home" and settle for vehicle-to-load — they solve genuinely different problems, and only one EV sold in Canada, the Ford F-150 Lightning Extended Range, currently has a certified V2H system you can actually buy and install, running roughly $9,000-$15,000 CAD fully installed. Several other EVs (Ioniq 5, EV9, GV60, Silverado EV) offer real, useful V2L output for smaller loads and off-grid use, but treat any V2H claims for those models as a future roadmap item, not a feature you can use today.

FAQ

What's the difference between V2L and V2H? V2L (vehicle-to-load) powers individual devices plugged into an outlet on or adapted from your car — no home wiring involved. V2H (vehicle-to-home) is wired into your home's electrical panel and can back up your whole house automatically during an outage.

Which EVs can power my house during an outage in Canada right now? Only the Ford F-150 Lightning Extended Range has a certified, purchasable V2H system in Canada, using Ford's Charge Station Pro and Home Integration System.

How much does it cost to set up V2H with an F-150 Lightning? The Ford hardware bundle alone runs roughly $5,500-$7,200 CAD; a full installation including panel work and electrician labour typically totals $9,000-$15,000 CAD.

Will my Hyundai Ioniq 5 or Kia EV9 ever get V2H in Canada? Both automakers have described V2H as planned or in development, but as of mid-2026 neither has a certified V2H product available to Canadian buyers — only V2L (3.6 kW) is currently usable.

Sources: RideZ.ca, "Vehicle-to-Home and Vehicle-to-Load EVs in Canada"; Ford Canada, F-150 Lightning Intelligent Backup Power. V2H availability and specific model support are evolving quickly — confirm current certified availability with the automaker before purchasing hardware.