In-Depth on Rev 1’s Onboard Power

The Rev 1 isn't just a utility vehicle; it's a mobile powerhouse designed to support the most demanding tasks. With up to 12 kW of exportable power, the Rev 1 has all the power you need for a full day’s work or play.

In this latest edition of our In-Depth series, we're glad to once again welcome Owen Emry, CTO of Orbital, to dive into the groundbreaking exportable power onboard the Rev 1.

Interview with Owen

Thanks for joining us again, Owen. Could you walk us through the Rev 1’s onboard power feature?

Sure, so the Rev 1 can export 120-volt AC – regular household utility AC that you can plug anything into.

It can also generate high voltage, which is usually 208 or 240-volt power if you need to run bigger things, like welders, larger saws or air compressors, things like that.

At 12 kW, that’s by far the most power onboard any UTV, and more even than the F-150 Lightning or Cybertruck. How have you fit so much power into this vehicle?

The cool innovation that’s in the Rev 1 is that our electronics design allows us to get this feature almost built-in, It’s something that it sort of does by nature, rather than being something that we add to the vehicle.

How does that work?

We use the same electronics to drive the motor as we do to charge the battery. And we do that through a clever series of design choices and some things that we patented a long time ago, that allow us to re-use the same hardware for the battery charger and for the motor drive, and those are just reconfigured at runtime, depending on what you’re doing.

Now, our system goes one better, and allows that hardware to do a third job, which is to generate grid-quality AC power. So we can power anything that you want to plug in. The vehicle can make that power, it can take it from the grid and it can feed it back, and allow you to power things anywhere you are.

So are other vehicles with this feature taking the same approach?

As far as I know, you’re starting to see this power export feature appear on the market on a few vehicles, but it’s been pretty limited so far.

The approach has universally been to do it with additional external hardware – basically, a power inverter that’s taking the DC from the battery and generating the AC. And that works, there’s nothing wrong with it, but it takes up a lot of space and costs a significant amount of money for those options because they’re added on.

So, instead, our system does these functions right out of the box, without any extra hardware. It allows us to create even more power with space and weight savings, and of course those cost savings are passed on to customers.

So what does this mean for the customer? How long will they be able to run their tools?

Obviously every use case is going to be different, but in general you should be able to run larger tools like a welder, or larger air compressors or saws all day long, and still have plenty of range left to get home.

And if all you need it for is a household task like brewing a pot of coffee or charging a device, then you’ll barely make any impact at all on the vehicle’s range. So you can feel confident and rely on the Rev 1’s power wherever you are without worrying about having enough range left to get home.

Closing Thoughts

The Rev 1’s exportable power is another example of the excellence possible when designing and building a vehicle from the ground-up.

By taking a clean sheet approach to the vehicle’s design, we’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible from a utility vehicle. If you’re curious to learn more, check out Owen’s interview on the design of the powertrain here.

You can reserve your Rev 1 today to ensure your spot in our first cohort of deliveries, beginning in 2026.