Ford has launched its new ‘Ford Charge Station Pro,’ a bi-directional home charging station that works with the upcoming F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck.
It is offered at a surprisingly good price considering it enables backup power and can basically replace a generator or Tesla Powerwall.
When Ford unveiled the F-150 Lightning, one of the features that created the most buzz was its support for bi-directional charging: Ford intelligent Backup Power.
It means that the electric pickup truck can send power back to power a home, another vehicle, or virtually anything it can plug into.
This is a feature that we have seen more and more in electric vehicles lately, including in the recent Hyundai Ioniq 5, but it is especially interesting in an electric pickup truck since pickups require bigger battery packs.
With a bigger battery pack, the electric trucks could afford to use some of their energy capacity to provide backup power in case of an outage, and therefore, it could potentially replace a home generator or home battery pack, like the Tesla Powerwall.
In order to use the capacity at home, Ford-F150 Lightning owners are going to need a bi-directional charging station to plug their electric pickup into.
Now Ford has officially launched the ‘Ford Charge Station Pro,’ which acts as both a charging station and bi-directional charger.
You can’t order it yet as the page shows it as “sold out,” but it reveals the price of the station to be $1,310:
While that’s significantly more expensive than your average home charger, for example, Tesla’s popular Wall Connector is only $550, the Ford Charge Station Pro is not your average wall charger.
First off, it is rated at 80 amp, twice the capacity of the average charger, and it enables Ford’s Intelligent Backup Power bi-directional charging capacity.
With 80 amps of max current, Ford says that the charging station can add 30 miles of range per hour to the F-150 Lightning Extended Range and it is limited to 19 miles per hour for F-150 Standard Range.
The other way, the system can provide up to 9.6 kW to your home when combined with Ford’s Home Integration System during the installation.
Speaking of installation, the $1,310 price tag doesn’t include it. Buyers are going to have to find a local electrician, but if you plan on using the station for backup power, you are probably better off working with Sunrun, Ford’s recommended installer who also happens to be the biggest Tesla Powerwall certified installer.
Other players in this field include Wallbox with the new Quasar 2 bidirectional charger, however the company has yet to announce EV partners or installers.
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