An Australian woman used her BYD electric car to power her son's dialysis machine during a blackout
www.businessinsider.com
A BYD electric car acted as a life-saving power generator during extreme weather in Australia.
    • makingStuffForFun@lemmy.mlEnglish
      184·
      1 year ago

      This company I’ve never heard of is appearing everywhere in social media. Obviously they’re spending big to get attention with advertorials and then social media links to said content.

      • Oliver Lowe@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        9·
        1 year ago

        BYD employ about 570,000 people and by some measures are the largest carmaker in the world. I’d never heard of them either until a couple years ago. They’ve definitely got the cash to put into PR like this. Past couple years Australia started importing their electric cars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BYD_Company

        • wikibot@lemmy.worldBEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          Here’s the summary for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:

          BYD Company Limited or BYD (Chinese: 比亚迪; pinyin: Bǐyǎdí) is a publicly listed Chinese conglomerate manufacturing company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It was founded by Wang Chuanfu in February 1995. The company has several major subsidiaries: BYD Auto that produces vehicles, BYD Electronic that produces electronic parts and assembly and FinDreams that produces automotive components.BYD's subsidiary BYD Auto is the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer, and is a major manufacturer in automobiles (battery electric and hybrid cars, buses, trucks, etc.). Through other subsidiaries, BYD also produces forklifts, solar panels and rechargeable batteries (mobile phone batteries, electric vehicle batteries and bulk storage). Over the past decade, the main business income proportion from the automobile business has remained consistently above 50%.

          article | about

      • ShepherdPie@midwest.socialEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        This was my exact thought as well. China saturated their own market with highly subsidized EVs and now their trying to do the same with every other market.

        • Dark ArcAEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          There’s also the whole … Max output from a Ford F-150 Lightning is 9.6 kilowatts vs 2.4 kilowatts from the Ford F150 ProPower’s inverter (which might come in handy if there’s a large spike in the power draw).

          The inverter per your source … and my understanding of it … gets you 85 hours at 2.4k, the EV gets you 41 (based on a continuous draw of 2.4k).

          The other thing worth noting though is the inverter provides outlets. An EV system can be basically directly wired into a home electrical system powering the whole home and there’s no concern about a truck running in the garage pumping out carbon monoxide. In theory it could even be automatic but I’m not sure we’re there yet.

          https://www.jdpower.com/cars/shopping-guides/what-is-ford-pro-power-onboard

          https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a39493654/can-your-ev-power-your-house/

  • bionade24@kbin.social
    9·
    1 year ago

    I’m suprised the family didn’t have UPS & generator at their house when a member’s life depends on a running machine. It’s not like many people built batteries in their homes just to store their solar energy. I highly doubt that a BYD is cheaper than a generator.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    An Australian woman used her BYD electric car to run her son’s dialysis machine after a huge storm left her without power.

    After flash flooding knocked out electricity across southeast Queensland on Christmas Day, Kristy Holmes used her Atto 3, which is made by Chinese EV giant and Tesla rival BYD, to power her 11-year-old son’s dialysis machine, according to a Guardian report.

    Holmes told The Guardian that her son Levi, who is waiting to receive a kidney transplant, could have faced life-threatening consequences were it not for the Atto 3’s “vehicle to load” feature, which allows it to charge household appliances with excess power from the car’s battery.

    The fact that some EVs are capable of acting as power generators on wheels makes them especially useful during major blackouts caused by extreme weather and natural disasters.

    When Hurricane Ian hammered the Florida coast in 2022, Ford saw a 127% increase in the number of people using their F-150 lightning electric pickups as power sources.

    Ford CEO Jim Farley posted on X that hurricane-hit drivers were using their trucks to cook meals and power lights.

    The original article contains 371 words, the summary contains 185 words. Saved 50%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!