Vehicle to load (V2L) adapter

Helmut Neukirchen, 20. April 2022

Luckily, more and more Electric Vehicles (EVs) support getting electricity out of the drive battery again. In future, this can be a key to use the energy stored in EVs during peak-usage (Vehicle-to-Grid). For the time being, I use it to have electricity when camping or during power outages to power my fridge.

For example, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV has a dedicated Schuko plug (rated at 1500 W -- by the way: it has no fuse: if you draw more amps, then simply the voltage goes down). Note that the Schuko plug exists only if the Outlander PHEV has not a heated windscreen as the same cabling is used for heated windscreen as for the plug, i.e. it is "either or" .

MG and Hyundai/Kia do this via the Type 2 charging connector (well, Hyundai/Kia do support also an internal Schuko plug, but the Icelandic Kia importer decided to offer/order only configurations without that internal plug). For the Type 2-based approach, a proprietary Type 2 to Schuko adapter is needed that is pretty expensive if you buy the OEM version.

Luckily, some re-engineering has been done that shows that only cheap passive electronics is inside. But be aware that the adapters are slightly different for MG and Hyundai/Kia. And in addition to DIY solutions (concerning the resistor, I did some research: a 0.25 W resistor should be enough), third parties start to offer way cheaper adapters: both for the MG, and for the Hyundai/Kia -- these are UK quality, better than China quality that does not even have the butto needed for Kia/Hyundai V2L adapter to start and stop V2L.