V2L Beauty, Urologist Performs Vasectomy Powered by Rivian R1T Pickup!
South Africa can finally get an EV with vehicle-to-load (V2L) technology, the Kia EV6. I am very excited about this. A while back, I wrote about how South Africa, where all the load-shedding is going on, needs some EVs with V2L. ” in an article titledWe need more vehicles like the Ford F150 Lightning: An African View” I am motivated to introduce vehicles with V2L technology in markets that experience frequent power outages.
An example of these vehicles is the Ford F150 Lightning. The Ford F150 Lightning can provide 9.6 kW of continuous backup power to help power your home or utility in the event of a power outage or high cost. By combining F150 Lightning with essential vehicle-to-home (V2H) gear, the pickup truck can help power homes and replace or reduce fossil-fuel-powered generators. South Africa has a Ford assembly plant where the ICE Ford Ranger pickup is assembled. Electric Ford Ranger Lightning and Thunder hatchbacks are coming and I hope that means we can get a locally assembled EV with V2L technology.
Sub-Saharan Africa has the largest share of electricity from standby generators in the world. In the region, 9% of the annual electricity consumption is from reserve / stand-by generators. This is due to the fact that many countries in the region have limited generation capacity and weak and intermittent grids, resulting in frequent power outages. This makes V2L technology more important in this part of the world than it is for the occasional camping trip feature in other developed markets where the electricity grid is more reliable.
Since I wrote those articles, I’ve had many conversations with people from around the world, and I’ve also seen some comments on social media that V2L is also important now and it’s not just nice to have a feature. Earlier this week, a great example of this came from a urologist in Austin, Texas! In what may be the first vasectomy using V2L, Dr. Christopher Young performed what he called the world’s first Rivian-powered vasectomy. On Twitter he said “The power in the clinic went out, the patient was already on vacation and didn’t want to postpone it. The electrocautery was normal, and the procedure was great!
Given the global energy crisis and rising energy prices, we should be hearing more of these stories in the near future. The good thing is that there are now a few vehicles with V2L technology. Here is a summary of a few:
Here’s a video showing some V2L action of the BYD Atto 3 of these vehicles in Sydney, Australia.
BID is taking electric vehicles to the world, offering the electric vehicle in many markets and new markets where other OEMs are not yet ready or willing to go. This means that more vehicles with V2L technology like the Atto 3 will soon reach more markets.
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