Kia converts its electric van into an off-grid mobile simulator rig with a 55″ screen

This is car news, not a home energy story, but one detail is worth noting for homeowners thinking about electric vehicles and backup power. Kia turned one of its electric vans, the PV5, into a mobile racing simulator with gaming seats and a 55-inch screen, built to raise money for a men's mental health charity at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England, running July 9 to 12, 2026.

What makes this relevant beyond the novelty is how the simulator gets its power. The setup runs entirely off the van's battery using vehicle-to-load (V2L), a feature that lets an electric vehicle send power out to run other equipment, essentially working like a portable generator. Kia says the simulator used just 1 percent of the van's charge for every two hours of operation, which gives a sense of how much spare capacity these larger EV batteries can have for running gear beyond just driving.

For homeowners, the takeaway isn't about this specific van but about the technology itself. Vehicle-to-load and related vehicle-to-home features are increasingly built into new electric vehicles, and some can power appliances or even help back up a house during an outage, depending on the model and setup. If you're considering an EV purchase alongside home energy upgrades, it's worth checking whether a given model offers this kind of power-sharing capability.