Park and pay with electricity from your EV

In a global first, electric vehicle owners can pay for parking by discharging energy while visiting a new Nissan exhibition in Yokohama Japan.

The payment system is one of a number of innovations at the Nissan Pavilion in the company’s home city designed to demonstrate the potential benefits to society of new energy vehicles.

Visitors can also eat at a cafe operating on power supplied by Nissan Leaf EV and solar energy.

They can also experience a virtual version of Formula E electric street racing or go for a ride in the all-new Nissan Ariya EV crossover.

2021 Nissan Ariya
2021 Nissan Ariya

The 10,000-square-metre exhibition is outfitted with solar panels, supplied with renewable hydroelectric power and is emissions free.

“The Pavilion is a place where customers can see, feel, and be inspired by our near-future vision for society and mobility,” said Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida. “As the world shifts to electric mobility, EVs will be integrated into society in ways that go beyond just transportation.”

Nissan introduced its first Leaf in 2010 and is now pushing hard into the EV market. It aims to sell more than one million electrified vehicles a year by the end of fiscal 2023.

It has introduced Nissan Energy Share and Nissan Energy Storage technologies that allows electricity from EV batteries to be stored, shared and repurposed.

More than 50 Leafs have been allocated to a Vehicle to Grid (V2G) trial backed by ARENA in Canberra.

In Japan, Nissan has also entered agreements with local governments to use Leafs as mobile batteries that can supply energy during natural disasters. In another partnership, the company is repurposing used EV batteries to power streetlights.