BYD Atto 3s provide V2L power in Hastings

BYD Bayswater has deployed its Atto 3 showroom stock to help provide power in Hastings during the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle.

The dealership has supplied the Red Cross there with the EVs and vehicle-to-load (V2L) adaptors to assist where power from the EVs’ batteries are needed.

BYD New Zealand manager Warren Willmot put up a LinkedIn post that BYD Bayswater (Hastings) is lending out its showroom stock for the Red Cross to become a mobile 240-volt power supply.

“Every EV should have this V2L technology,” he adds.

Some other EVs do have the ability, like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 – featured in EVs and Beyond.

Our managing editor Richard Edwards also used his BYD Atto 3’s V2L capability to power essential appliances at his Mangawhai home during the storm when grid power was cut, posting this video on YouTube.

Bayswater Group dealer principal Rob Townshend says they’ve loaned three or four BYD Atto 3s with V2L adaptors and about four Land Rover Defenders as well to the Red Cross (including two Atto 3s) and Civil Defence.

He says they were also sent two generators by helicopter from Hyundai New Zealand and are considering what other vehicles (especially four-wheel drives) are required, mainly to access remote areas.

The Atto 3s can help charge up cell phones, power fridges and the like (they can produce 51kW when fully charged).

Bayswater has about six dealerships and around 160 staff, all now open and staff accounted for.

Townshend is hoping the Government will offer help for businesses impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle, which he says has devastated the Hawke’s Bay region.

He knows of a shipping container housing machinery such as lawn mowers and motorbikes that was shifted eight kilometres by the flooding and says many people are now homeless or still cut off.