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Nissan unveiled new pilot projects this week to equip its buildings with Leaf electric vehicles and launches "Nissan Energy" to eventually market this home-building vehicle system with a new partner, Fermata Energy.
When Nissan launched the new Leaf generation last year, one of the major new features was the built-in bi-directional load capacity.
This is something the Japanese manufacturer has been working on for years, but it was mostly part of some test programs here and there.
A year after the launch of the new Leaf generation, we had not heard much about the use of this feature, but Nissan is now launching a new "Nissan Energy" program to take full advantage of it.
According to Nissan, the goal is that "Nissan's electric vehicle owners are able to easily connect their cars to energy systems to recharge their batteries, power their homes and businesses, or restore power to their homes." Energy to power grids. "
The main goal is to reduce load demand by reducing peak demand by using Leaf batteries, which are primarily useful for businesses, but the same technology can also be used by Leaf owners to power their home.
Here is a simple graph published by Nissan on technology:
Daniele Schillaci, Nissan's senior vice president of marketing, sales and electric vehicles worldwide, commented on the launch:
"Nissan Energy will enable our customers to use their electric cars for more than just driving: they can now be used in almost every aspect of their customers' lives. Our vision of Nissan Intelligent Mobility calls for changing the way cars integrate into society, and Nissan Energy transforms that vision into reality. "
They have listed three pilot projects for which they will test the system with fleets of leaves:
- Franklin, Tennessee: Nissan North America will drive the use of LEAF vehicles to help power its headquarters facilities during peak periods of electricity demand, with significant cost savings.
- Hagen, Germany: LEAF vehicles will be a reserve for the German power grid as part of an innovative pilot project involving Nissan, technology company The Mobility House, ENERVIE energy supplier and Amprion transmission system operator
- Japan: Nissan collaborates with partners such as utilities and telecom companies, and conducts field tests of network-based network and virtual plant systems to confirm and promote the potential of electric vehicles for the management of electric vehicles. energy
In the United States, Nissan has partnered with Fermata Energy, a transportation network systems company.
They had a prototype of their vehicle-network device at a launch event in Los Angeles yesterday:
We spoke with co-founder John Wheeler at the event and he was very excited about the partnership and the opportunity to create a lot more value with these vehicles.
They first target fleet operators, especially municipal fleets, which, according to Wheeler, leaves them with a lot of money.
Municipal fleet vehicles stay on parking lots for long periods of time. If they update their fleets with the Nissan Leafs and connect them to Fermata's building peripherals, their software could handle loading and unloading in order to reduce peak demand and save a lot of money. money for the municipality.
According to Wheeler, some fleets could pay back their construction vehicles in a few years and cover the cost of reloading the Leafs, which would result in significant fuel savings for municipalities and significantly reduce their carbon footprint.
On the Nissan side, the company strives to ensure that the home vehicle / building system does not negatively affect the battery. As long as it will be safe, Nissan will be happy to let Leaf owners earn more money with their batteries.
Fermata software also ensures that it does not unload when you need battery life.
It's all about giving you the opportunity to take advantage of your battery when you need it, but if you need more power in your car, it keeps you charged.
Electrek's Take
We need more of that. With two electric vehicles, my energy capacity is often 75 to 160 kWh and I do virtually nothing in a driveway all the time.
It would be great to use them. Again, as long as it does not significantly affect the longevity of the battery.
But that's where the money is and it's only for a short time.
For high demand load markets, like San Diego, Fermata sees a lot of potential. It turns out that Nissan has a design center in San Diego and many employees drive Leafs.
They run a test program and they appeared satisfied with the results.
Fermata expects their system to be launched for the fleets in the first quarter of 2019 and that a residential system may be available by the end of 2019. We will contact them as well as Nissan once that they will be launched and will report.
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