An electric vehicle owner has used her car’s emergency power system to run her 11-year-old son’s lifesaving dialysis machine and another has ridden to the rescue of his neighbours after devastating storms cut power in south-east Queensland.

When the power went down following storms and flash flooding on Christmas Day, many residents immediately felt the consequences: electric gates did not work, septic tanks began to fill, air conditioners could not run and fridges began to warm as a heatwave followed.

But some electric vehicle drivers whose cars are equipped with “vehicle to load” systems – a back-up power system that allows the car to act as an emergency generator or supply for devices such as lights, laptops, TVs and refrigerators – stepped in to help out and, in some cases, save lives.

    • ProvableGecko@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Technically yes, they ran the machine off the car battery but most hemodialysis patients don’t drop dead if they miss a session for a day. Also they could have used any vehicle to drive the kid to a dialysis center or a hospital which are probably required to have generators in Australia as they are elsewhere.