Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) UK: Turn Your EV Into a Power Bank

Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) get most of the attention because they can power a house or export back to the grid. Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) is the simplest and most widely available of the three — it turns your EV's battery into a portable power bank, discharging through an ordinary three-pin socket built into the car or delivered via an adapter on the charging port. No electrician, no home rewiring, no grid paperwork. If your EV supports it, you can already use it today.

What Vehicle-to-Load actually is

V2L draws AC power from the EV's high-voltage traction battery and outputs it through a standard UK 230V three-pin socket, either built into the cabin/boot or via a plug-shaped adapter that fits into the car's charging inlet. It behaves like a small, silent generator: plug in a kettle, a power tool, a camp fridge, or a phone charger and the car simply supplies the load. Typical output is capped around 3.6kW on European-spec cars — enough for most single household appliances, but not a whole-house supply the way V2H is.

V2L vs V2H vs V2G: what's the difference

All three sit under the umbrella term "V2X" (vehicle-to-everything), but they solve different problems. V2L powers individual appliances directly from the car's own socket — it never touches your home's wiring or the electricity network. V2H uses a bidirectional charger to feed your home's consumer unit during a power cut or to offset peak-rate electricity, without exporting to the grid. V2G goes further still, exporting surplus battery capacity back onto the public network for an export payment. V2L is the entry point: no bidirectional charger to buy, no G98/G99 application, and it works with any V2L-equipped car the day you drive it home.

Which UK EVs have V2L in 2026

Hyundai's IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6 are the clearest documented example: Hyundai UK's own product pages confirm the cars can power external devices or charge electrical equipment up to 3.6kW through the onboard 230V socket, covering things like e-bikes, camping equipment and small appliances. A growing list of other UK-market EVs also ship with V2L, including the Kia EV6, EV9, EV3 and EV5 (Hyundai's sister brand, sharing the same E-GMP platform), the MG4, BYD Atto 3, and Volvo EX30, though the exact output and whether an adapter is bundled or sold separately varies by model and trim — always check the specific car's spec sheet rather than assuming parity with the IONIQ figures above. Some manufacturers include the V2L adapter as standard; others sell it as an accessory.

What you can realistically power

At roughly 3.6kW (16A), a V2L socket can run most things you'd plug into a household ring main one at a time: a 3kW kettle, a power tool, an induction hob, a laptop, or a small fridge. It's not designed to run several high-draw appliances simultaneously, and most cars limit or cut V2L output once the battery's state of charge drops to protect the driving range you need to get home — typically somewhere around the 20% mark, though the exact cutoff is manufacturer-specific and not always published. For camping, tailgating, market stalls, or running power tools on a site with no mains supply, it replaces the petrol generator or leisure battery that this kind of job traditionally needed.

Do you need DNO permission for V2L?

No. The grid-connection paperwork that applies to solar panels, batteries and V2G — Engineering Recommendations G98 and G99 — only governs equipment designed to operate in parallel with the public low-voltage distribution network, per the Energy Networks Association's own scope wording for those standards. A V2L socket never connects to your home's wiring or the grid at all; it's electrically isolated from both, functionally closer to a portable generator than a grid-tied inverter. That's why V2L needs no DNO notification, no G98/G99 application, and none of the 28-day registration window that applies to plug-in solar or a home battery.

Safety basics

Treat a V2L socket like any outdoor mains supply: use a plug-in RCD (residual current device) if the car's own socket doesn't already include one, keep cables and connections dry, and don't exceed the rated output printed on the socket or adapter. Running the car's climate control or infotainment while using V2L will draw down the battery faster than the load alone suggests, since the vehicle stays "on" to supply the socket.

Is V2L worth factoring into an EV purchase?

If you already tow, camp, work from vans or sites without power, or just want backup for the odd power cut without the cost of a bidirectional V2H charger, V2L is a genuinely free bonus on cars that include it — there's no extra hardware to buy beyond an adapter in some cases. It won't run a whole house through a power cut the way V2H can, and it earns nothing the way V2G does, but for portable, on-demand power it's the most accessible V2X feature on the market today, and one worth checking on the spec sheet when comparing EVs.