Two-Way Charging Is Chinese EV Drivers’ Favorite Life Hack

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Every morning, as freezing winds blow across his construction site in northern China, Liu Jianhong gathers his workers for a cup of hot tea. Liu, whose business in Shaanxi province often operates beyond the reach of power grids, plugs a hairdryer-like charger into his hybrid electric car, a sport utility vehicle from Chinese automaker BYD Co. The other end of the charger connects to his kettle. A few minutes later, it lets out a whistle and tea time begins.

“With the help of the electric car, we can drink tea whenever and wherever we want. My workers are over the moon,” says Liu, 57, who used to schlep hot water in a too-small thermos from a nearby village each day, forcing his employees to take turns enjoying tea breaks. Liu's EV has come to the rescue before, like when he needed to charge a power drill at a newly-built home he hadn't realized wasn't connected to a utility. “If it were not for my car, I would have wasted all the time and energy going there,” he says.As EVs with plugs proliferate, what's known as “two-way charging” is becoming table stakes in the electric diving experience. Drivers like Liu are among a growing number of people thinking about their car as not only a cleaner and cheaper way to get around, but also a source of electricity in day-to-day life and during emergencies. In China, where more than one in five new cars sold this year was electric, more people than ever are experiencing a future in which vehicles double as power banks, and EV makers are pitching their products as “batteries on wheels.”

Since Liu Xiao, 38, started hooking up his camping stove to his hybrid electric car during weekend getaways, he no longer worries about his kid getting too close to an open flame. The camping enthusiast,