GM to offer EV owners ability to sell power to US electricity grid

• Reuters

• Published On Jun 10, 2026 at 02:17 PM IST

The company is in discussions with utilities for commercial rollout, likely starting in California and Texas within months.

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General Motors is releasing a software update that allows some US electric-vehicle owners to pipe power back to the electric grid, another example of car companies pursuing business opportunities in the energy sector.

The update gives owners of GM’s vehicle-to-home ‌energy system, which ⁠allows the ⁠EV to power the home during a blackout, the expanded capability of feeding electricity to the power grid. However, it remains unclear whether doing so will be popular with drivers, who may also want to keep their cars charged.

Vehicle-to-home system owners would be able to sell power back to the utility at ⁠times of ‌high demand, with GM getting a cut of those payments. A GM spokesperson said it has thousands of vehicle-to-home ⁠users, but declined to provide a specific figure.

Very few utilities offer such capability today, and the practice essentially is still in a pilot phase. GM is in discussions with around 10 utilities, GM Energy Chief Revenue Officer Aseem Kapur told Reuters at an event in San Francisco.

GM will need utility cooperation for the vehicle-to-grid access ‌to work. Commercial rollout of the technology will likely happen in the next few months, starting with California and Texas, Kapur said. In ⁠Michigan, GM is partnering with utility DTE Energy on a vehicle-to-grid pilot with 30 GM employees.

Utilities have approached the vehicle-to-grid idea cautiously because of the investment needed, the uncertainty of the technology and the number of users.

Automakers, including GM’s crosstown rival Ford Motor , have been following Tesla’s lead by trying to build energy businesses.