December 2, 2025
A Note from Steve
I’m excited to debut a new feature in V2G News: in-depth conversations with the industry leaders who are shaping the future of vehicle-grid integration. We’re launching this series with David McCreadie, Ford’s Director of EV Grid Energy Services, whose decade of work at the intersection of EVs and the electric grid has helped move bidirectional charging from concept to reality.
These interviews are designed to bring you firsthand insight into the strategies, challenges, and breakthroughs driving V2G adoption, directly from the people leading the transition. And this is just the beginning. Throughout 2026, V2G News will feature more voices from automakers, utilities, regulators, aggregators, and technology innovators as we continue exploring what it will take to scale V2G across the U.S. and around the world.
Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for much more to come.
Introduction
V2G News sat down with David McCreadie, Director of EV Grid Energy Services at Ford Motor Company, to discuss Ford’s journey from vehicle-to-home (V2H) backup power to full vehicle-to-grid (V2G) operation, the company’s partnership with Sunrun and ChargeScape, the evolving regulatory landscape, and what it will take to scale bidirectional charging across the U.S. market.
McCreadie has spent his entire career at Ford, working across engineering, business strategy, and energy services. For the past decade, he has focused on a simple but transformative question: How can an EV become a good grid citizen while remaining, first and foremost, a reliable vehicle for its owner?
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q&A With Ford’s David McCreadie
V2G News:
To start, can you describe your role at Ford and the work your team leads in EV-grid integration?
McCreadie:
I lead the EV Grid Energy Services group at Ford. I’ve been with Ford my whole career, beginning as an engineer, and over time shifting into business and strategy roles. For about the last ten years, my focus has been on how our electric vehicles can become good grid citizens and how we can help customers become good grid citizens as well.
That work spans everything from utility-facing coordination to the cloud software that manages charge scheduling and the customer experience in the vehicle and in the app. A core principle guides all of it: customers buy an EV because they need transportation, not because they want to serve the grid. Our job is to ensure customers always have the energy they need when they need it, while making the EV a useful resource for the grid wherever possible.
V2G News:
Ford was first to market with a vehicle-to-home (V2H) solution on the F-150 Lightning. How has customer response aligned with expectations?
McCreadie:
Customer response has been strong and very positive, essentially what we expected. When we launched the Lightning, the system was designed primarily for home backup power. Resiliency was the initial anchor.
But from the beginning, the system was built to do more than backup. It had the hardware needed to operate in grid-parallel mode, meaning it could provide power to the home while the grid was up, and eventually export back to buildings and the grid during normal grid conditions. Unlocking those additional capabilities was always part of the roadmap.
Over the last several years, customers using the V2H backup capability have given us a lot of valuable insight. We’ve learned that these features are compelling, intuitive, and genuinely valuable to homeowners, especially in regions with frequent outages or high time-of-use price differentials.
V2G News:
Ford recently enabled full V2G operation while the grid is still energized, a big step beyond backup power. What drove the timing?
McCreadie:
The hardware has had the necessary capabilities since day one, the Ford Charge Station Pro, the Sunrun Home Integration System, and the UL-certified inverter. What we needed was the software to unlock grid-parallel operation.
That software started rolling out this year. It allows the system to move from grid-isolated operation (backup power) to grid-parallel operation exporting power from the EV battery to the home or the grid. With that comes a significant opportunity for residential bill savings, especially in regions with large time-of-use differentials. In addition, in some jurisdictions, we see opportunities for EV owners to be paid for providing grid services to the local utility.
We’ve seen real savings already. Some participants in the Baltimore Gas & Electric (BG&E) pilot with Sunrun were saving hundreds of dollars per year, in some cases close to $1,000 annually, through simple rate arbitrage. That’s a strong indicator that customers see real, tangible value.
V2G News:
Speaking of BG&E, what did Ford learn from that collaboration?
McCreadie:
Sunrun is our system partner and played the lead role in that pilot. The early phase focused on backup power, and then it evolved into grid-parallel V2H/V2G. The success there, both technically and economically, helped validate that this technology is viable in real homes with real customers.
One thing the pilot surfaced is an industry-wide issue: utilities can be uneasy about systems that have full bidirectional hardware capability, even if that capability is disabled in software until the customer has interconnection permission to operate. We are working to show utilities that software enablement is reliable, secure, and includes multiple layers of redundancy. This is an important industry dialogue, not just for Ford.
V2G News:
Looking ahead, how does Ford see V2H and V2G evolving across its broader EV portfolio?
McCreadie:
We’re very bullish that bidirectional capability will be a core part of the EV value proposition going forward. It enhances what an EV can do for a customer’s home, wallet, and community.
As we roll out new EV platforms, this capability is part of the product future. Regulatory landscapes, interconnection rules, and market designs will influence the pace, but our intention is clear: this will expand across Ford’s EV lineup.
V2G News:
Beyond bill savings, what do you see as the most compelling opportunities for EV-based energy services?
McCreadie:
There are two major value streams:
- Bill savings from rate arbitrage, which we now know can be substantial in the right markets.
- Earning money through utility incentives or V2G export compensation.
Because EV batteries are large and customers typically use only a portion of that energy for daily driving, there’s significant headroom to provide grid services responsibly, within warranty limits. Using the EV battery to support the grid, whether through export or reducing household load during peak periods, has strong economic potential.
We believe this stacked value proposition will become increasingly important as more programs come online.
V2G News:
Warranty is always a concern for EV owners thinking about V2G. What can you say about how Ford approaches battery health and protection?
McCreadie:
I’m not a battery chemist, but I can say that the testing and robustness our team has built into these batteries indicate that both unidirectional charging and responsible bidirectional use stay within healthy bounds, and we have covered current bidirectional charging capabilities under our existing battery warranty.
The key is that Ford uses cloud-based monitoring to ensure the battery remains within limits tied to longevity and warranty protection. If the system detects use outside those norms, for example, too much discharging, we will limit operation to keep the battery in a healthy zone. Customer protection is central.
V2G News:
Partnerships clearly matter in this space. How does Ford view its relationship with aggregators and utilities, especially through ChargeScape?
McCreadie:
Partnerships are essential.
Ford has chosen ChargeScape as its pathway for providing grid services to utilities and customers. ChargeScape solves what we call the “many-to-many” problem, the reality that no automaker can individually integrate with hundreds or thousands of utilities across the U.S.
Without an aggregator like ChargeScape, scaling V1G and V2G programs is not a tenable business problem for Ford or any automaker. With ChargeScape, we can reach customers in all states, not just select pilot regions. If VGI is going to be a meaningful part of the EV value proposition, we need a national-scale solution. ChargeScape is that solution.
V2G News:
When you look at the regulatory landscape, what challenges stand out most?
McCreadie:
The biggest challenges right now are regulatory and policy-related, not technical. Interconnection rules, permission-to-operate requirements, and market participation structures vary tremendously across the U.S.
A major issue is determining when an EV is allowed to behave as a DER and when it isn’t. If interconnection costs or requirements are too high or too complex, they can undermine the economic value for customers. And importantly, utilities are major beneficiaries of using EVs as grid resources, so alignment here matters.
Ford is approaching this humbly. We’ve never had to think about interconnection before. Now we do. And we’re working closely with utilities and regulators to navigate a space that’s new for everyone involved.
V2G News:
Customer behavior is another variable. What questions are you most interested in answering through pilots?
McCreadie:
We want to understand how customers feel about using their vehicle to provide energy to their home or to the grid. Does it create hesitation or uncertainty in the customer? What behaviors accompany that? We don’t have all the answers, which is why pilots with ChargeScape and utilities across the country are so important.
Customer acceptance, understanding it, supporting it, and designing for it — will be essential to scaling this technology.
V2G News:
Stepping back, what’s your outlook for the future of V2G?
McCreadie:
Technically, the industry is largely there. The remaining hurdles are regulatory alignment, coherent interconnection pathways, market designs that reward flexibility, and customer confidence.
I genuinely believe the future is bright. But for the U.S. to reach scale, we must address the process and cost of interconnection, ensure programs provide fair value, and keep customer experience at the center. As you noted during our discussion, this is the convergence of two industries, automotive and electric power, that developed separately for over a century. Integrating them is a big task, but a necessary one.
We’re committed to doing the work.
Closing Thoughts
David McCreadie’s perspective offers a clear window into how one of the world’s largest automakers is approaching the emerging V2H and V2G opportunity: by combining robust hardware, software-enabled control, strong partnerships, and a customer-first philosophy. Ford sees bidirectional charging not as a niche feature, but as a central pillar of the EV value proposition, one that can unlock new economic value for drivers while supporting the reliability and flexibility of the grid.
As pilots expand and regulatory frameworks evolve, Ford’s experience with the F-150 Lightning is shaping what the future of EV-grid integration could look like on a national scale.
