EVs may eventually be a major contributor to keeping our grid robust, despite what you may have heard.

There have been quite a few doom and gloom scenarios about AI and EVs putting too much stress on the grid. But here’s a fact that Toyota recently shared that may surprise you. There are already more than four million EVs on U.S. roads. If they were all equipped with bidirectional charging, they could collectively send back as much power to the grid as approximately 40 nuclear reactors, according to Toyota.

EV Rider has reported on what’s known as Vehicle to Grid or V2G before. That’s a process where electric vehicles can feed power back into utility grids when they’re plugged in and parked at home.

Toyota’s V2G Pilot Program

I’m revisiting the topic because it’s gaining momentum, with one example being Toyota. Toyota has teamed up with Texas-based Oncor Energy, which is one of the nation’s largest utilities.

They’re in the midst of rolling out the next phase of their vehicle-to-grid pilot program.

The beauty of V2G is it helps utilities manage power spikes. For example, if a heat wave hits, participating EVs that are sitting plugged in at home or in a garage can send power to the utility as needed to lessen the possibility of a brownout – or worse.

Toyota isn’t the only company doing this. EV Rider has also done stories about Tesla working with California’s PG&E utility and a California school district with EV buses doing the same thing.

Toyota has been working on its program since late 2022 at its test facility in South Dallas.

Many EVs, including vehicles like the Chevy Silverado, Tesla Cybertruck and Ford F-150 Lightning can also serve as full backup power supplies for homes during power outages. For homes with rooftop solar, EVs can store excess energy produced during the day to power some or all of the home at night – or even charge another EV when it arrives home for the night.

Given how big EV batteries are, even most home central air conditioning systems can be run for days at a time during a blackout.

Here’s where it really gets interesting. There are roughly 295 million vehicles in the U.S. If we all switched to V2G EVs and all utilities and automakers participated, we would have enough power to cover about 175 million U.S. homes for about 1.3 days during power outages. That’s according to an EV Rider prompt requesting an analysis by Microsoft CoPilot, which is an AI provider.

Whether we as a society have the will to make such a dream come true on a large scale is a different question entirely.

For anyone interested in the details, here are the assumptions and math CoPilot used to come up with that estimate. If you find any

errors with CoPilot’s assumptions, please let me know in the comments.

Cartoon Short: EV Rider & Zappy Promote V2G

Assumptions Used For V2G theoretical Estimate (source: CoPilot AI)

Estimate of how many cars/vehicles are in the U.S.

• All registered motor vehicles (cars, pickups, SUVs, vans, trucks, buses, motorcycles): estimated to between 285 to 296 million by CoPilot looking at available public data.

For the calculations below CoPilot used a round estimate:

• Total EVs in a 100% electric fleet: 285 million vehicles

2. Assumptions for the V2G scenario

Assumption 1 – Number of EVs

• N_EV = 285,000,000 vehicles

Assumption 2 – Average battery size per EV

Assume a mix of sedans, SUVs, and pickups, with an average battery of:

• E_bat = 70 kWh per vehicle

Assumption 3 – Total theoretical storage in the fleet

Total battery energy if you could use 100% of every battery:

• E_total = N_EV * E_bat
• E_total = 285,000,000 * 70 kWh
• E_total = 19,950,000,000 kWh
• That is about 20 terawatt‑hours (TWh)

Assumption 4 – Average U.S. household electricity use

Average U.S. home uses about 10,500 kWh per year.

Convert that to daily usage:

• E_home_year = 10,500 kWh per home per year
• E_home_day = 10,500 kWh / 365 days
• E_home_day ≈ 28.8 kWh per home per day

Assumption 5 – Number of U.S. households

Use a round estimate:

• N_homes ≈ 132,000,000 households

Assumption 6 – Realistic usable portion of EV battery for V2G

Since all vehicles can not be drained to zero, and they are not all plugged in at the same time, CoPilot made the following assumptions:

• 50% of vehicles are plugged in and available at any given time
• 50% of each battery’s capacity is allowed to be used for V2G (to preserve driving range and battery health)

Combined usable fraction:

• f_usable = 0.5 (plugged in) * 0.5 (allowed depth of use)
• f_usable = 0.25

3. Usable grid energy from the EV fleet

Start from the total theoretical storage:

• E_total ≈ 20 TWh = 20,000,000,000 kWh

Apply the usable fraction:

• E_usable = f_usable * E_total
• E_usable = 0.25 * 20,000,000,000 kWh
• E_usable = 5,000,000,000 kWh

So the usable V2G energy at any given time (under these assumptions) is about:

• 5 TWh, or
• 5,000,000,000 kWh

4. How many homes could that power?

4.1 Number of homes for one day

Energy needed to power one average home for one day:

• E_home_day ≈ 28.8 kWh per home per day

Number of homes that can be powered for one day by the usable fleet energy:

• N_homes_1day = E_usable / E_home_day
• N_homes_1day = 5,000,000,000 kWh / 28.8 kWh per home per day
• N_homes_1day ≈ 173,611,111 homes

Round that:

• About 170 to 180 million homes for one full day

Since the U.S. only has about 132 million households, that means:

• The usable EV storage could power more than all U.S. homes for one day.

4.2 How many days of power for all U.S. homes?

First, total daily electricity usage of all U.S. homes:

• E_US_homes_day = N_homes * E_home_day
• E_US_homes_day = 132,000,000 homes * 28.8 kWh per home per day
• E_US_homes_day = 3,801,600,000 kWh
• That is about 3.8 TWh per day

Now divide usable storage by that daily need:

• D_days = E_usable / E_US_homes_day
• D_days = 5,000,000,000 kWh / 3,801,600,000 kWh per day
• D_days ≈ 1.315 days

So the usable EV fleet storage could power all U.S. homes for about 1.3 days under these assumptions.

5. CoPilot’s Final summary

• Number of vehicles: about 285 million total motor vehicles in the U.S. (not just passenger cars).
• Battery assumption: average 70 kWh per EV.
• Total theoretical storage: about 20 TWh of energy in the full EV fleet.
• Realistically usable for V2G at any given time: assuming 50% of vehicles are plugged in and 50% of each battery is allowed for grid use, about 5 TWh (5,000,000,000 kWh).
• Impact on homes:

• That can power about 170–180 million homes for one full day, or
• Power all ~132 million U.S. homes for roughly 1.3 days of typical electricity usage.

The post V2G: How EVs Can Make Our Grid More Robust appeared first on EV Rider.

Toyota’s Prius Prime PHEV has taken a giant leap forward in terms of style and EV range for the next-generation 2023 model. It’s gone from a dowdy, so-so PHEV to class-leading.

Whether it’s range, style, acceleration or handling; the new Prius Prime is a joy compared to the old cars.

Gone is the last generation’s somewhat polarizing styling. Instead drivers will find a trendsetting look that is among the most attractive hatchback sedans on the road today. 

Post your questions or comments about the Prius Prime here.

Let’s start with what is perhaps the car’s most important improvement: range. 

The base Prius Prime SE is rated at 44 miles of all-electric range, which is 76 percent jump over the previous generation, according to Toyota.  

Our top trim XSE Premium model with its 13.6 kWh battery is rated at 39 miles of all-electric driving due to its larger 19-inch wheels. The SE comes with 17-inch wheels. 

Toyota predicts it will receive an EPA-estimated 127 combined MPG-equivalent rating for the SE and 114 MPGe for the XSE Premium. Official EPA range estimates for the 2023 Prius Prime weren’t available yet at the time of this story’s posting. 

With a 10.6 gallon tank, Toyota estimates Prime drivers will be able to go 550 miles on a full charge when combined with a full tank of gas. 

The Prius Prime is also economical when running in hybrid mode, delivering a Toyota-estimated 51 miles per gallon. However, it did miss a couple of “prime” opportunities as compared to its former competitor, the discontinued Chevrolet Volt PHEV.

The Prius Prime charges at a maximum rate of 3.5 kW per hour as compared to the Volt’s 6.6 kW charging speed. The Volt also beat the Prius Prime in EV-only range at an EPA-estimated 53 miles per charge.

Adding to the Prius Prime’s efficiency, a solar roof option adds 185-watts worth of panels. Motor Trend found that in six hours of Los Angeles sun it could make just over a kilowatt hour of power a day, which the automotive magazine said works out to 3.2 miles, which means assuming perfect weather, you could fully recharge it in 12-days, although the magazine found three weeks to be a more realistic estimate.  

During our time with the Prius Prime, we saw peaks of just over 100-watts per hour during a partly cloudy Jacksonville day.   

The car had produced 21.6 kW of solar power in its brief lifetime, which according to the car’s readout was good for 96.6 miles of solar-powered driving.

Using a per kWh rate of 26 cents, Motor Trend estimated it would take about seven-and-a-half years of 275 blue-sky afternoons per year to pay off the additional cost of the solar roof, which is a $610 option on the XSE Premium trim model. The solar roof isn’t available on base models.

A fixed-glass roof is also available on the Prius Prime in addition to a standard hardtop on the base model. 

While the 2023 Prius Prime is a better overall automobile than its predecessor, it has lost some cargo space and headroom as compared to the last generation. With that said, apart from tall rear-seat passengers of over 5′ 10′ or so, most probably won’t notice the difference.  

Rear visibility also isn’t the best, but thanks to our test car’s rear-camera mirror system, it actually had better rear visibility than most cars. It’s easy to toggle the mirror camera on or off, just like you would toggle a traditional mirror at night.

When the mirror camera is activated the car’s natural blind spots are eliminated and a much wider rear-view of traffic is offered. 

Toyota’s new gauge cluster in the Prius Prime splits the difference between a traditional dashboard and a heads-up display. It’s situated high on the dash.  

Thanks to a widely adjustable steering wheel I didn’t have any trouble dialing in a comfortable 100% view of the display. 

The dash readout features a wealth of information that is accessible via steering wheel controls.  

AutomotiveAddicts.com lent EV Rider the Prius Prime featured in this road test. AutomotiveAddicts.com Publisher Malcolm Hogan says with the exception of the Kia Niro, the Prime doesn’t face much direct competition. 

“The Prius Prime is almost in a category by itself. You have a few competitors out there in the SUV realm. A lot of them start to get into a higher price.” 

The Prius Prime SE bases at $32,350, while the average new car price was $48,334 in July 2023, according to Kelley Blue Book. Our heavily-optioned XSE Premium-trim Prime carried an as tested price of $42,510.

The 2023 Prius Prime is the quickest Prius yet, with a 0-60 mph time of 6.6 seconds, according to Toyota. That’s a 35% performance bump over the 10.2 second time of the outgoing model.  

“I’m actually impressed with the Toyota Prius. I thought I’d never say that,” Malcolm said. “Previous generations were pretty slow. Let’s be honest. I mean this one, it’s not a rocket ship, but it just runs rings around the old previous generations.”  

Our XSE Premium trim had the 12.3-inch high-resolution touchscreen, which was logically laid out with several EV-and-hybrid centric screens along with wireless Android Auto and Apple Car Play. 

Out on the road our Prime’s adaptive cruise control and steering assist worked as expected. 

There’s a lot more to this story. For a road test and additional details about the Prius Prime, watch the video at the top of this post and if you enjoyed this edition of EV Rider, please give the video a like and subscribe to the EV Rider YouTube channel. 

2023 Prius Prime Full Printable Specifications

The post ’23 Toyota Prius Prime PHEV Combines Style, Efficiency appeared first on EV Rider.