[Jway288]

Hello all. Hoping someone may be able to help me out with a question. With the v2l I've read many places the 3600kw is split between inside 120v and outside. They make 120v to 240v adapters which have two incoming 120v legs which merge to a single 240v leg. As a backup for my house this would then allow me to manually run my well pump or grinder pit excavation pump on emergency power through the ev6 v2l. Has anyone tried this or is there any reason it wouldn't work? This would a huge selling point for me. Also wonder if Kia can update the v2l in the future with an Ota update to allow more throughput. I have no desire to buy one but the new ev ford f150 will output 240v, 80 amps which would power most houses. I just want 240/30amp so I can use my water during power outages. Again, thanks anyone who is able to enlighten me a little to this question.

 

[dave123]

Be careful, those adapters don't give you 240v, they just provide the same 120v to each leg. In order to use one, you have to switch off any 240v breakers in your panel.

 

[DMiller]

I don't think you can use both the inside V2L and the external V2L adapter at the same time. This Kia video says if you try to do that you will get a message V2L conditions not met.

Also, to create 240V from two 120V circuits, they must be opposite phases (legs in the breaker panel). Kia is unlikely to have put two separate inverter circuits in the EV6, especially if they don't plan to let them both be active at the same time.

 

[s7davis]

Be careful, those adapters don't give you 240v, they just provide the same 120v to each leg. In order to use one, you have to switch off any 240v breakers in your panel.

I saw somewhere maybe it was a youtuber that created a DIY cable to use 2 120v outlets to go into a 1450 outlet to cover the 240v. They did say that you do have to have the 2 outlets on a separate breaker or it will not work. Meaning 1 cable to 1 breaker for the 120v then another arm to the other outlet on a different breaker will work and make it a L2 charger. But of course these are not covered by the UL or was it UI lol

 

[Jway288]

I don't think you can use both the inside V2L and the external V2L adapter at the same time. This Kia video says if you try to do that you will get a message V2L conditions not met.

Also, to create 240V from two 120V circuits, they must be opposite phases (legs in the breaker panel). Kia is unlikely to have put two separate inverter circuits in the EV6, especially if they don't plan to let them both be active at the same time.

Thank you for the reply. You give two excellent reasons why my hope probably isn't going to be feasible. Too bad. I hope they do a future OTA update to allow more juice out. I know chargers are coming eventually which will allow bidirectional output and open up more. Amperage but was hoping to avoid the added cost and have the feature available now instead of having to wait. Thanks again.

 

[dc30307]

It would be interesting to know what the difference is between the US cars, and the ones in other markets that have 220v V2L. Is it a hardwired difference in the inverter? Is it a software switch? Does it depend on which V2L adapter you plug in?

 

[DMiller]

They did say that you do have to have the 2 outlets on a separate breaker or it will not work. Meaning 1 cable to 1 breaker for the 120v then another arm to the other outlet on a different breaker will work and make it a L2 charger

Not just any two breakers, they have to come from the two separate legs in the panel. In most panels, the odd and even breakers on each side are connected to the L1 and L2 legs (odd on L1, even on L2) and the opposite side has the same connections. In this photo of my home's panel, the breakers are getting power from the interleaved metal fingers running down the center, one contact drives both a left and a right breaker. The contacts above and below that are on the opposite leg.

 

[whitehawk]

Ideally, for me, it would come in through a generator inlet socket which is wired to the breaker box with a safety interlock. I assumed it would be the 3.6kw which would give me enough juice for most of my basic needs. I hope a solution can be found for this. For me, it really justifies the expense of a 60k car.

 

[sithanas]

It would be interesting to know what the difference is between the US cars, and the ones in other markets that have 220v V2L. Is it a hardwired difference in the inverter? Is it a software switch? Does it depend on which V2L adapter you plug in?

Almost definitely a function of the inverter unit onboard the car. It's probably using the Level 1 circuitry (the 120v capability) of the onboard charger which the Euro model would not have.

 

[Jway288]

Ideally, for me, it would come in through a generator inlet socket which is wired to the breaker box with a safety interlock. I assumed it would be the 3.6kw which would give me enough juice for most of my basic needs. I hope a solution can be found for this. For me, it really justifies the expense of a 60k car.

Exactly this. I've wanted a whole house generator forever but cost is so high I've never pulled the trigger. I've been looking at electric cars for the last couple years but nothing has ticked all my boxes. Then the Ioniq 5 and ev6 both show up and are exactly what I've been looking for. Throw in they can do some form of backup power, albeit not as much is ideal right now and they just are such a good package. Hopefully kia/hyundai listen to their customers and free up more of the battery for v2l.

 

[dave123]

A home breaker panel is split phase power, you have 2 hot's coming in, each out of phase with the other. As in the picture above, every other breaker (top/down) is connected to a different phase. A 240v breaker connects to two adjacent spots to provide 240v. If you have an inlet (possible a 14-50) it would be connected to a 240v breaker to feed both sides of the panel. The 4 wire connection has 2 hots, a neutral, and a ground. technically you can buy/make a plug that takes a standard 120v plug from the EV6 (or a 120v generator) and connects both hots of the 14-50 together so you are feeding both sides of the panel. There are lots of discussions from people wanting to use small 120v inverter generators to power their panels. The issue here is that both sides are in phase so unless you turn off any 240v breakers, bad things will happen.

 

[Jway288]

Appreciate all the feedback in here. Quite a good discussion for anyone not familiar with electrical.

For some context I've run 50amp service to an outbuilding and completely wired in a basement apartment in my house. I'm completely aware of the different phases of 240v and how that works. Where my knowledge lacks in DC electricity and the process of switching from AC to DC. I know these cars can charge at least a 240v/60amp, so I would like to believe they should be able to feed that power back to my box as well. I'm not sure if software limits the amount that can back flow or if it's hardware. I really had hoped the two different 120v plugs were on different phases so they could be combined but it makes sense it's a single phase.

My plan was to make a manual transfer switch with 4-5 circuits that flow throw it during regular power on times but can be thrown to run off a feed from the car in a power outage.

 

[whitehawk]

Philip Till showing I5 V2l in action after power cut by UK storm.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1494713071536902144

C'mon KIA give N.A. 3.6 kW!

 

[alexw]

Also, to create 240V from two 120V circuits, they must be opposite phases (legs in the breaker panel). Kia is unlikely to have put two separate inverter circuits in the EV6, especially if they don't plan to let them both be active at the same time.

Educated speculation here: I think that's EXACTLY why they're likely to have designed it with two separate "inverter circuits."

Of course, they could have implemented "AC mains output" any number of ways, including a dedicated mains inverter like you'd buy on amazon and slap in your pickup truck for the job site. Having seen this teardown of Tesla's power converter module, I'm sure that's not what they've done - they've repurposed all the same circuitry for the charger and just run it in reverse.

In theory, since the converter must consume two or three phases of AC, it could also generate two or three phases without much design effort. No reason to stifle functionality in the US market vs others, other than of course the outlet in the car needs to be a normal NEMA 5-15 single phase 120V. But I'd bet any money that you can just plug a Korean V2L adapter into an American car and get 220 out.

Now I GUESS this counts as speculation, but I'm not even sure? I don't think the point of the V2L system is to power a microwave on a camping trip. Again, if you wanted that, it is but a $200 annoyingly bulky amazon purchase away, even in this car. The WHOLE POINT here is vehicle to grid. That's a lot more complicated than V2L, and from a practical consumer standpoint requires all kinds of integrations like 1) a hardwired wall charger that supports reverse-charging 2) any necessary non-export switches given your local municipality 3) assuming full grid-tie, phase tracking support on the car to match the grid phase and drive it correctly to run your meter in reverse 4) software to interface with your utility for billing purposes, and control when your car is consuming vs exporting, etc etc.

Anyway the point here is that supporting V2G functionality in North America necessarily implies being able to generate two un-balanced 120V phases and a neutral, just as supporting it in Europe necessarily implies being able to generate 3 230V phases.

I'd be willing to bet the difference between them is software configuration.

 

[Jway288]

I ended up getting a gt line hoping that they open it up in the future. If not I'll be disappointed but even so it is an unbelievable car. Beyond my expectations in about every way. Just hope I can backup my water, waste, and food systems for my house sometime in the future and this car will be a dream. Thanks again for all the input everyone. Hoping we learn more as some of the pros who have the cajones tear one down.

 

[alexw]

If not I'll be disappointed but even so it is an unbelievable car.

I had a crisis of faith a day or two ago thinking "wait this is Audi money now, should I be getting a Q4 Etron?!" so I looked into it and found some head to head comparisons where people said "nah the EV6 wins hands down"

Literally the biggest points against it are that it's a Kia. Hyundai/Kia've done some damn good work.

 

[Jway288]

I had a crisis of faith a day or two ago thinking "wait this is Audi money now, should I be getting a Q4 Etron?!" so I looked into it and found some head to head comparisons where people said "nah the EV6 wins hands down"

Literally the biggest points against it are that it's a Kia. Hyundai/Kia've done some damn good work.

100% agree. Once some of my friends who gave me the but it's a Kia grief saw it they were floored. My one friend who was riding with me goes, "okay so this feels like I'm in a high end audi with more acceleration than a hemi challenger but gets the fuel economy of a prius. That's just not fair.". Lol

 

[pss]

A little over 60K with 20 inche wheels on E-tron and 0-60 in 5.8. They will get good look at EV6 rear end.

 

[Dathes]

I don't think you can use both the inside V2L and the external V2L adapter at the same time. This Kia video says if you try to do that you will get a message V2L conditions not met.

Also, to create 240V from two 120V circuits, they must be opposite phases (legs in the breaker panel). Kia is unlikely to have put two separate inverter circuits in the EV6, especially if they don't plan to let them both be active at the same time.

Does this video apply only to 220v outputs or also to 110v outputs?

 

[DMiller]

That video is from one of Kia America's Youtube channels, so it is for the 120V vehicles.