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Japan’s history has several natural disasters, related to the fact that the island nation is located along the Ring of Fire, an area of the Pacific Ocean where several tectonic plates converge.
These plates, colliding, have given rise to a series of underground volcanoes and, when “they move”create epicenters from which violent earthquakes start.
The Japanese state has allocated an adequate budget for disaster prevention which includes, among other things, anti-seismic buildings, alarm systems, evacuation centers.
And Nissan also intends do his part.
The idea to use its electric vehicles during disasters was born on March 11, 201112 years ago, when in Tōhoku, an earthquake closely followed a tidal wave, causing the Tsunami that hit the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Nearly 5 million homes found themselves without power e Nissan decided to make a small fleet of first generation LEAFs available to the populationto power their homes.
Since then the company has started explore ways to use electric cars as power generators, leveraging their batteries.
in May 2018 the project was then launched Blue Switchwhose mission is demonstrate how EVs can be used as energy sources for purposes beyond mobility.
Opportunities didn’t take long to arrive.
In 2019, Nagano prefecture was affected by the Typhoon Hagibis, which disrupted power lines of the whole region; but within the volunteer center power tools were charging, pc’s and printers were working, rice and coffee was being served regularly.
This is thanks to one White Nissan LEAF parked outside downtown, what it powered the electricity grid, allowing the volunteers to continue working.
The automaker could then demonstrate in real life the high value of electric cars seen as mobile generatorsable to charge where the power lines are still functional and then move onespecially during the early hours and on critical days, in disaster areas by providing energy where it is needed most.
After typhoon Faxai (September 2019), lhe public administrations of the affected areas decided to deploy several Nissan LEAFs to support the population and infrastructure.
“We are using technology now, for real solutions, to meet immediate needs”said Asako Hoshino, executive vice president of Nissan and chairman of the company’s management committee for Japan and ASEAN.
The Blue Switch was awarded at the Japan Resilience Awards 2020Where Nissan was the only automaker on the list of winners.
The program was cited for have shown the potential of electric cars during emergenciesalong with their role in energy management and in the battle against climate change.
Three years later, Nissan renews its civil commitment to the Japanese population, signing an agreement with the city of Kotohira.
The brand will make the new ones available Nissan LEAF as energy support in the event of natural disasters: the partnership is also thought to raise environmental awareness and disaster prevention in a sustainable way.
According to the agreement, should the power go out in Kotohira district, Nissan will make its LEAF EV models available free of charge (through local concessionaires) to evacuation centers and other vital facilities, in the best interest of citizens.
In addition, electric vehicles will be used as generators of electricity also during city events such as demonstrations or showsin order to spread the use of electric carsin line with the sustainable development goals that the city of Kotohira is pursuing.
The public administration has adopted a Nissan Sakura EV Which public vehicle and portable power deviceofficially giving the good example.
As stated by Nissan, electric vehicles “drive storage batteries” and it’s time to use them to their full potentialmaking full use of V2G technologyto which we have dedicated this article.
Nishi-ku House Initiative (Yokohama Prefecture) it could also be followed by other competitors, such as Toyota for examplewho recently changed CEO (here the article) which could in turn enter the electric car market with greater momentum.
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