GM electric vehicles to power homes in a new California pilot program

Basic Motors on Tuesday announced a pilot software with Pacific Gasoline and Electrical Co. in California that would make its electrical vehicles able of powering a dwelling in the occasion of a electrical power outage or grid failure.

“This is really substantial mainly because it can be a different benefit of owning an electric car,” GM CEO Mary Barra said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

The shift matches similar abilities by other automakers, which include Ford Motor with its future electrical F-150 Lightning pickup that’s owing out this spring. Ford has partnered with photo voltaic enterprise Sunrun for charging and vitality components to enable these types of abilities. EV start off-up Lucid Group also has declared very similar capabilities for its $169,000 Air sedan.

Choose PG&E utility buyers will acquire component in the pilot this summertime, Barra said. The companies are doing work to scale the pilot to open it up for larger sized shopper trials by the stop of 2022, in accordance to a push launch.