Vehicle-to-home EV charging in Perth: bi-directional charging explained

A standard EV charger only moves power one way, into your car's battery. Bi-directional charging reverses that: your car's battery can power your home during an outage (V2H, vehicle-to-home) or send electricity back to the grid (V2G, vehicle-to-grid).

Short answer for Perth in 2026: V2H is possible today through aftermarket hardware if you own a CHAdeMO-equipped Nissan Leaf or an Outlander PHEV. V2G isn't a residential product here yet: Synergy has no standard tariff for it. For most households shopping for backup power in 2026, a dedicated home battery is still the more practical buy. V2H is a genuine option only if you already own, or plan to buy, one of a short list of compatible vehicles.

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What's the difference between V2H and V2G?

V2H (vehicle-to-home): your EV battery powers the loads in your house. It's mainly useful during a blackout: the car acts as a very large battery pack sitting in your driveway. Power stays on your property and never touches the grid.

V2G (vehicle-to-grid): your EV battery exports electricity back to the grid, which can earn revenue or reduce demand charges. It needs a Synergy export agreement and metering that can tell EV export apart from solar export: more complex than V2H.

In Perth, V2H is the one you can actually do right now. V2G needs a bilateral agreement with Synergy and isn't offered as a standard residential product. For how Synergy treats EV charging and export more broadly, see WA's EV charging tariffs and costs.

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Which EVs support bi-directional charging in Australia?

As of mid-2026, the list is short.

Nissan Leaf (CHAdeMO models): earlier Leaf models with a CHAdeMO port support V2H. The Leaf e+ has a 62kWh pack with roughly 59kWh usable. Nissan has since moved newer Leaf models off CHAdeMO, and the replacement port differs by market, so only the older CHAdeMO-equipped Leaf works with this V2H hardware. Check the port on the actual car before assuming it does. You'll need a CHAdeMO-capable V2H unit (below).

BYD Atto 3: ships with 3.3kW V2L (vehicle-to-load) as standard equipment in Australia today, enough to run tools or appliances straight from the car. Full V2H integration with a home energy system is still limited: check with your BYD dealer for current status.

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV: supports V2H via CHAdeMO, the same hardware requirement as the Leaf. The battery is much smaller than the Leaf's, and usable capacity varies by model year and trim, so check the specific vehicle's spec sheet. Either way, it's useful for limited backup, not whole-home for long.

Tesla (all models): no V2H or V2G in Australia yet. The Powerwall is Tesla's home battery, a separate product. Tesla's PowerShare V2H feature already ships for the Cybertruck in the US; Model Y has V2L only and Model 3 has neither. None of it is confirmed for Australia yet.

Hyundai IONIQ 5, Kia EV6, Genesis GV60: all offer V2L through a 3.6kW 230V socket built into the car. That powers appliances directly, useful for camping or an outage, but it isn't the same as integrating with your home's wiring.

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What V2H hardware is available in Perth?

Wallbox Quasar 2: a bi-directional DC charger for CCS2 vehicles. There's no confirmed Australian release, pricing, or purchase pathway as of mid-2026.

CHAdeMO V2H units: a handful of CHAdeMO V2H units exist and work with the Leaf, though Australian supply is thin and not every model sold overseas has an approved local pathway, so confirm what a WA installer can actually source and commission. They're usually installed with a transfer switch as part of a home energy management setup. A CHAdeMO V2H install costs several thousand dollars more than a standard AC charger, on top of the vehicle itself. Get a current quote from a licensed electrician before you commit. For what a standard, one-way charger costs by comparison, see the best home EV chargers for Perth.

SolarEdge bi-directional EV charger: a separate charger unit designed to work alongside SolarEdge's Home Hub inverter for V2G. It isn't commercially available for residential customers in WA yet.

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What can V2H actually power in your home?

A Nissan Leaf e+ carries around 59kWh of usable pack capacity, but nothing like all of it reaches your power points. A V2H setup holds back a driving reserve and stops discharging well before empty, converting from DC to AC costs you more along the way, and the car is rarely sitting at a full charge when the power goes out. Plan on roughly 40kWh from a full battery, and treat these runtimes as a good day rather than a guarantee:

1. Whole-home backup (3–5 kW average load): 8–13 hours
2. Essential loads only (fridge, lighting, phone charging, roughly 0.5 kW): about 80 hours
3. A split-system air conditioner running continuously (1 kW): about 40 hours

A dedicated 10kWh home battery has 9kWh usable and costs roughly $8,500–$15,500 installed. The Leaf's V2H capacity runs about 4.4 times that: real resilience, for a Perth household where the car sits at home overnight and most weekends.

The catch: the car has to be plugged in. Drive it during an outage and your backup goes with it.

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Can you export EV battery power to the grid in WA?

Selling power from your EV battery back to the grid (V2G) needs three things:

1. A V2G-capable vehicle and charger
2. A Synergy-approved export arrangement: Synergy has to sign off on the connection
3. A meter that can record EV export separately from solar export

Synergy doesn't have a standard residential V2G tariff yet. WA's EV roadmap lists V2G as a future consideration, but the regulatory and metering groundwork for residential V2G isn't in place across the network. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has funded V2G trials, including a household program that grew from 50 to 1,000 participants in 2026. Commercial products will follow, just not here yet.

For Perth households, V2G is worth watching, not buying.

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Is V2H worth it now for Perth?

Good fit if:

• You own, or plan to buy, a CHAdeMO Nissan Leaf or an Outlander PHEV
• Backup power is a genuine priority because of a medical need or heat sensitivity, though if life-support or medical equipment is involved, size the backup on the car being half charged and away from home some of the time, and keep a plan that doesn't depend on the vehicle at all
• You're building new and want the electrical setup ready for a transfer switch down the track
• You're comfortable being an early adopter and know the cost-benefit is marginal today

Not worth it yet if:

• You're buying a new EV: most current Australian EV models don't support full V2H
• You want backup you can count on. This is the real argument for a home battery, and it is worth being straight about which way the numbers actually point. If you already own an eligible car, V2H is the cheaper way to buy backup capacity: several thousand dollars over a standard charger gets you around 40kWh, where a 10kWh home battery costs roughly $8,500–$15,500 installed and gives you 9kWh usable. Per dollar of backup, V2H wins comfortably. What the battery buys instead is certainty: it is bolted to your wall, it is charged from your own roof every day, and it is still there when the car is at work, at the shops, or lent to someone. V2H backup only exists when the car happens to be home and has charge in it. For a household that wants backup to be dependable rather than cheap, that difference matters more than the capacity. For that comparison in full, see solar, battery, and EV charging stacked together.
• You want grid export revenue (V2G): not available in WA yet

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What to watch over the next two years

• CCS2 bi-directional charging: more mainstream than CHAdeMO, with wider vehicle support expected through 2026–2027 as European and Korean manufacturers roll out bi-directional CCS2
• A Synergy V2G product: WA is consulting on V2G integration; a future VPP offering for EV owners within 2–3 years is plausible
• ARENA-funded trials: commercial V2G products will follow these trials, not lead them

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V2H is possible in Perth today, through aftermarket hardware, if you own a CHAdeMO-equipped Nissan Leaf or Outlander PHEV, but it costs several thousand dollars more than a standard charger on top of the vehicle. If you already own one of those cars, V2H buys more backup capacity per dollar than a home battery does. What it does not buy is certainty, because the backup drives away with the car. For most Perth households, whose next EV will not support V2H at all, a conventional home battery remains the practical choice. Watch the CCS2 bi-directional rollout from Hyundai and Kia for wider V2H access over the next couple of years.