Charging is still one the biggest worries and hurdles to the EV transition. What if you could have something that could not only power your EV when you wanted it to and where you wanted it to, but also power your home in an emergency?
That’s the aim of a new power station spotted by The Verge. Made by Anker, its flagship powerstation the Solix F3800 is finally available to order after raising $6 million in a Kickstarter. Starting at the not so cheap price of $3,999, the Solix is designed to be portable; it looks to be the size of a karaoke machine or large speaker. You can even connect solar panels to it, as The Verge pointed out:
The F3800 is designed to be portable with a telescoping handle and wheels. You can connect up to 2400W of foldable solar panels to the F3800 to create a semi-mobile 132.3 pound (60kg) solar generator to power your RV, boat, work shed, or tiny house from the unit’s built-in NEMA 14-50 and L14-30 ports. You can even charge your EV at 6,000W / 240V for a dozen or so extra miles of range in an emergency.
If you find yourself wanting to actually use this thing like Anker says you can, like charging your EV or powering your house, you’ll find that’s the catch of the Solix. It’s designed to be expandable and work with Anker’s 3.84kWh BP3800 LFP expansion batteries. The catch is that you’re about to spend a lot of money.
The 3.84kWh Solix F3800 power station itself can be expanded to 26.9kWh of energy capacity after adding six of Anker’s 3.84kWh BP3800 LFP expansion batteries. It’s capable of producing up to 6,000W of dual-voltage (120V / 240V) AC output across oodles of jacks — enough to easily power just about any home device, including the air conditioner and water pump. You can even connect two F3800 together for 12,000W of total AC output and up to 53.8kWh of capacity, but now you’re talking about a system costing tens of thousands of dollars.
While Anker offers different builds based on user needs, the fully maxed out system shown above is the one that can power homes in a blackout for up to 2 weeks and output 53.8 kWh of power. But you’re looking at a system costing well over $60,000; even going with a smaller build that features one Solix power station and just six batteries its still nearly $29,000. Much like the green energy transition itself, that price ensures that only the well to do will be able to enjoy the benefits of portable electric energy when they need it.