14 DAY TRIAL // One would think that, when one connects an EV to a building, there is just one way the electric current can flow: from the building to the vehicle. Leave it to Nissan to prove these people wrong.
The company has recently announced that, not long ago, it finished testing a new system that allows Nissan LEAFs to power an entire building.
Specifically, Nissan says that its engineers have managed to connect six LEAFs to the power distribution board of the company’s Advanced Technology Center in the city of Atsugi, Japan.
Thanks to the Vehicle-to-Building system, the building was able to draw power from the EVs during peak hours. When the building's energy requirements were not all that high, the cars were the ones that had electricity fed into them.
Throughout the duration of the test for the Vehicle-to-Building system, the Advanced Technology Center's electricity use during peak hours dropped by about 2.5%, i.e. 25.6 kilowatts, EcoWatch reports.
Nissan estimated that, were the system to remain online for an entire year, the building's electricity bill would have been reduced by about $5,000 (€3,681).
The company now wishes to work towards making the system available to all LEAF owners and says that, should the latter agree to use it, they too could cut their energy expenses. The technology would also make it easier for them to deal with power outages.
For the time being, it is still unclear when the system might become available on the market.