Without light at home, many Spaniards turned to another “shelter” for hot dinner or load the mobile: their car

Spain collapsed. In five seconds, The Government tells us60% of the electricity consumed at that time was lost and all kinds of electronic devices went black. Then we understood to what extent we depend on electrical energy.

Without the possibility of plugging into the network, the batteries began to quote and, above all, they showed us the importance of having a Small electric survival kit. Because how can we load the mobile when we don’t have electricity?

The question also resonated at a server’s house. First came the disappointment with the already known answer to the question “Didn’t you have some PowerBanks?” Then, a light bulb was lit: “We always have the car.”

A shelter

Luckily, we did not have to go down to the garage but use the car like a gigantic external battery would not have been a bad idea. In fact, it is not necessary to have an electric car although this technology allows us to even be more flexible.

The USB shots From cars with combustion engines they generally serve us to plug small electrical devices and can get us out of trouble. Simply start the car and connect to one of its ports or take the lighter.

In this case, the most basic and obvious option a situation like the one that We have lived in Spain on April 28, 2025 It is to load the mobile phone or an external battery that already helps us keep the electrical devices alive.

Generally, cars’s USB shots are not especially powerful, so we will need to spend more time load the mobile phone that at home and surely we will have to forget the fast charge. As we will see, there are some exceptions to this.

If your car is already a few years old, The normal thing is that you use a USB 1.0 or 2.0. This limits the load to 500 mA. With current phones, the load will be extremely slow or, simply, it will slow down your download if we are using the mobile phone at that time. If the car is more modern, it is easy for USB-C shots to deliver 5W of power onwards, which is more than enough to load a current mobile phone.

Another solution if, as we said, the car is a few years on it is to use an adapter for the tambo. In this case, It has a voltage of 12 volts In direct current and its amperage is 10 A. The maximum power in this case usually reaches 120W so the maximum power to which we can load the car will depend on the adapter used.

In stores like Amazon It is easy to find products for little money with up to 30W So we can load a relatively fast mobile phone or, if necessary, to a laptop if necessary. That is, it is not a bad idea to carry an adapter of these in the car. Not only is it a matter that in the case of a blackout we can load the phone, it is also interesting if, for example, we have suffered a breakdown and we have to wait for hours until we get an assistance.

The possibilities multiply with an electric car. Currently, most of those sold in the market arrive with V2L (Vehicle to Load) technology, a standard of Bidirectional load that allows to load most of the electronic devices we have at home because, simply, it makes our car a domestic plug.

To get an idea, the car becomes a huge battery with wheels that can provide us with electricity to 3.4 kW. That is, we can easily plug a microwave and, for example, dinner hot despite being in the middle of a blackout. Again, it is an interesting solution if we want to spend an night away from home and we want to make a timely use of a high consumption device like this.

Keep in mind that a device such as A microwave can easily overcome 1 kW of power to function. Therefore, we could not start it without this type of V2L technology. Again, it is an interesting option without the need to face a blackout. If we want to spend an afternoon in the field and enjoy coffee after eating, A capsules coffee maker can be the solution. And more useful, we can Take advantage to have an inflatable mattress Wherever we go.

The two previous cases are not isolated. Talking to other colleagues who have an electric car, some of them have confirmed that they took advantage of the car batteries to serve various home tools and, in fact, they regretted that in Spain the V2H technology (Vehicle to Home) or V2G (Vehicle To Grid) is not allowed.

With the V2H technology You can pour the battery from an electric car to a house. Although in most cases the car itself reserves a minimum percentage that is usually at 20%, this bidirectional load could supply tens of kWh to a house, which can be used to maintain a house for several days.

V2G technology allows even launching electricity accumulated in the car to the general electricity network and, therefore, electric cars could act as electric power stores that can be used in emergency cases.

Photo | Hyundai

In Xataka | Spanish Electric Electric