GM shared two announcements today about its electric vehicle program. The most notable news for consumers is the launch of Energy Pass, a universal interface for public charging across multiple different brands’ stations. Tesla, Electrify America and IONNA will be supported at launch, with EVgo and ChargePoint to be added “soon.” Energy Pass will allow owners of GM EVs to easily find and pay for a vehicle’s electricity within a single app.

The second item is a firmware update that will bring full vehicle-to-grid functionality to GM Energy’s vehicle-to-home systems. As the name suggests, V2G means that an EV can contribute power back to the local electrical infrastructure. This development is for a more niche audience since it requires people to have the correct setup in their homes and a vehicle that supports this bidirectional charging. But for those customers, having an EV that can essentially act as a backup generator during a power outage is a welcome improvement.