In Capitalist Japan, Electric Cars Power You - Or At Least Your Building
Who's powering what now?
IMAGE BY Nissan
In a neat twist, Japan is in the midst of an interesting energy trial that involves powering buildings from a rather unlikely source - the battery pack of a Nissan Leaf.
This particular program will use a Leaf to provide four per cent of the energy requirements to a building about 30 kms south of Tokyo in between 1 and 3pm.
Given that people are always complaining about the battery capacity of today's EVs, it's an interesting move, especially considering the extra cycles will diminish the battery life of the car somewhat, it also makes a certain amount of sense - if you're not using your EV to drive around, why not use that energy somewhere else.
It's especially enticing if there's some sort of cash-back program attached. And, of course, you can always treat your car as a backup generator.
[Autoblog]