Ford

• Ford has unveiled the Home Power Management program, which allows F-150 Lightning owners in select markets to store up cheaper electricity during the day for charging later on. 
• The program requires the Ford Charge Station, Ford Home Integration System and a participating utility, but it could save some owners up to $500 per year, the carmaker claims. It also allows people to earn money this way.
• As Ford expects EV sales to slow in the short term, the program could encourage some homeowners to break up with gasoline.

Blame AI data centers, or an outdated grid, or extreme weather events, or even more electric vehicles on the road. But one thing is clear: Americans’ electricity bills are on the rise. And now, Ford has a solution for certain F-150 Lightning owners that’s designed to save money on charging, support the grid and do what no gas truck ever could.

Ford today unveiled its Home Power Management program, which allows F-150 Lightning owners with the correct set of equipment to better manage their home charging, power their homes in a smarter way and support the grid when needed. It can store up electricity from when energy rates are cheapest to power an entire house during the more expensive hours. 

And using the F-150 Lightning’s native bi-directional charging feature, owners in participating utility markets will be able to earn money for charging at more grid-friendly times of the day. 

Ford officials said the program is proof of how EVs can reduce stress on electric grids and provide power to homes when it’s needed. “Our customers need solutions to frequent, more frequent grid outages,” Ford spokesperson Maria Buczkowski said. “We see an opportunity here where our EVs can be part of the solution, rather than
compounding the problem.” 

The F-150 Lightning has always supported bi-directional home power. And like some other EVs, this capability has been used to keep the power on during natural disasters, like Hurricane Beryl in Texas last summer. But this takes things to the next level by allowing them to send stored energy back into the grid; Ford has been running a pilot program since this summer, and now it’s set to expand. 

It works like this: F-150 Lightning owners with the Ford Charge Station Pro home charger and Sunrun’s Home Integration System can take advantage of the fact that electric rates are generally cheaper during the day. It’s in the evening and at night when everybody’s home, cooking dinner or watching TV and playing video games, that rates go up. 

With Home Power Management, the truck can automatically charge up during those cheaper times and then power the house itself during the more expensive times of day—effectively skipping over the priciest times of day for electricity. 

Ford officials said they’ve been piloting this with several utilities, including DTE Energy in Detroit and many other pilot programs are in progress with unnamed utilities, they said, as Ford hopes to scale this program across the country quickly. They are also working with several utilities on smart charging programs, including the Sacramento Municipal Utility District in California, Eversource in New England, TXU Energy in North Texas, and others. It’s been working with all of those providers via its ChargeScape joint venture. 

Bi-directional charging and home power, including vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capabilities, are quickly on the rise in the EV space. General Motors recently announced that it will lease out its home power equipment, enabling any GM EV to act as an energy source for an entire house. And Wallbox and Kia are expanding their California pilot programs to power homes and the grid using the EV9. Tesla is also growing its power-sharing operations via the home Powerwall.

Ford’s home charger and its installation are included with the lease or purchase of an EV through a program called the Ford Power Promise. The Ford Home Integration System is not complementary, but costs $3,895 for the hardware, plus installation. It is available through Ford’s partner, Sunrun. Ford is expected to announce more utility partners over time.

While Ford officials have acknowledged they expect EV sales to decline in the near term with tax credits coming to an end, they are anticipating greater demand over time—especially with the rollout of Ford’s upcoming $30,000 EV truck and platform. That too will have bidirectional charging capabilities and work with grids in the same way, presumably at a wider scale when the first trucks go on sale starting in 2027.

“I think that customers are going to want this because it’s something that is unique to electric vehicles,” Ford spokesperson Emma Bergg said. “And I think the more people who work out that there is an energy independence advantage to electric vehicles, that’ll be another reason for people to consider them beyond any tax incentives.”

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com