Add-on inverter for V2L

[beatle]

I was thinking more about fleet sales, and how a lot of fleet sales for the Lightning were because of its robust onboard inverter. This is great for power companies, remote welding, air compressors, etc. The Slate hasn't really gone into much detail about running heavier electrical loads from the truck, though forum member @sodamo o did have this question addressed by Slate last year. Chris Barman just said to "check your frunk" when asked about powering a job site.

I was thinking a much more practical modular solution would be to have a weatherproof inverter box mounted to the bed rails and secured with a lock to prevent theft. When it comes time to use it, a jumper cable from the charge port could be run to backfeed out of the battery. Since the charge port is used, there isn't anything to install or wire up in the truck itself, and unlike the Lightning's inverter, the Slate packaging doesn't have to work around anything inside the truck, hopefully making for an easier integration. Slate could easily sell this as a $1000-$1500 accessory.

The slightly more expensive option is to run something like a Ecoflow Delta Pro 3 that can simultaneously output 240v and take a 120v input. This would act as a buffer for the low AC output of the truck. They are a little more than $2k, but you can also take it with you.

 

[KevinRS]

The truck may not have an AC output at all, that's still unclear. The issue with running high powered stuff is it's a small truck with a small battery. Try to get through a day of work off of it and you likely need to then charge the truck before you can drive.

 

[beatle]

That's the nice part about backfeeding through the charging port. It can be DC out to an external inverter. Nothing needed on the truck for AC. I only mention the Ecoflow if there is a weak 400w inverter to use to charge it.

Depending on what you're running and how many miles you need to drive, the truck's battery will likely last all day. Even if you make 1000 ten-second cuts on a chop or table saw for flooring or framing, that's like 5 kwh, or 10% of the standard battery. Trying to run a big crew off the Slate to build a mansion might be pushing it, but maybe not. Especially if you're running a lot of battery powered tools and you only need to charge the batteries a couple times a day.

If you have to run a lot of lights and/or heaters or you're trying to power a large compressor to paint things, that's a different story, but kind of a fringe one.

 

[GaRailroader]

It would be nice to see it support this. One of the appeals to the Nissan Leaf I bought was that it supported bi-directional charging. I thought that I would be able to have V2L during power outages. It turns out the Nissan Leaf offers the bi-directional in theory but not so much in reality. The best I could do was hook an inverter up to the 12V battery and leave the car on so the DC to DC converter would keep the 12V charged while I was pulling a load. Kind of clunky.

 

[AZFox]

The truck may not have an AC output at all, that's still unclear.

To the contrary, I think it's been very clear, including a video short and the Q & A....

Q: Power outlets? Thinking of work sites and emergency power scenarios.

A: Check your frunk.

 

[KevinRS]

To the contrary, I think it's been very clear, including a video short and the Q & A....

Q: Power outlets? Thinking of work sites and emergency power scenarios.

A: Check your frunk.

And that photo appears to show a 12v plug. We haven't even seen an image of what kind of outlet will be there. The angle in this one hides it, most images show nothing there at all.
On using the charging port as an outlet, that would depend on the charging connection being designed for output.

 

[beatle]

I dunno, looks like the top of a 5-15P to me. The top looks flat like the slots of the receptacle are at the top since the plug is flat on top. I found a higher res version:

Those little egg cookers draw 350-400w which puts it in line with what the Maverick can output from its inverter. Not enough to run a jobsite, but enough to charge tool batteries.

 

[AZFox]

She said (well, strongly implied at least) there will be a power outlet in the frunk that can be used for work sites and emergency power scenarios.

I interpret that to mean there will be a 120V AC outlet in the frunk.

 

[GaRailroader]

If it were a 12V outlet wouldn't that need about 30 amps to to get to 350-400 watts. Aren't those 12v outlets usually limited to about 15 amps?

 

[beatle]

I think she should have been a little more specific.

Slate could offer XT60 plugs backed by thicker copper wiring. This would let you bring your own inverter and get about 700 watts. Definitely keeps with the "blank Slate" theme.

Or maybe they'll have "smart" outputs that the truck sees via CAN bus.

 

[KevinRS]

OK, the cooker does appear to be a "3 in one breakfast maker" that is on amazon and other sites, available in multiple colors, that is 120v 350 watts.
The plug looks to me like a 12 volt plug though, and I can't find an image of the cooker's plug.
I know I have seen DC cigarette lighter plugs that had that shape, take out the screw in that hole to disassemble and replace the fuse, and it seems too big for a 120 v AC plug.
This could always just be something they rigged up for that one prototype for one time use to show that there will be power in the frunk though.