Nissan says Leaf can be home energy source, but Tesla big battery “waste of resources”

Nissan Leaf. Source: Nissan
Source: Nissan

The Driven

Owning an electric car in Australia could become much more than just driving from A to B with a reduced carbon footprint, according to Nissan Australia which launched the new version of the Nissan Leaf electric vehicle in Melbourne on Wednesday .

Nissan confirmed at the launch that the new Leaf, with a 40kWh battery, will be a V2H (vehicle-to-home) energy asset – meaning that, unlike other electric vehicles, it will have the capability to charge your home (subject to further testing with Australia’s network owners and operators).

Called bidirectional charging, the 40kWh Leaf (and for that matter the 62kWh version which is not yet slated for an Australian release) essentially has the capability to become your personal, massive, mobile battery.

This means it will be able to not only store energy by plugging into your home, workplace or other destinations such as shopping centres with free charging, or from DC fast-chargers – it will be able to serve that energy back to your home.

And it could be available to use in Australia within six months.

To read the full story on RenewEconomy’s electric vehicle dedicated site, The Driven, please click here…

Bridie Schmidt is lead reporter for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She specialises in writing about new technology, and has a keen interest in the role that zero emissions transport has to play in sustainability.

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