Nissan trials future of paid parking: They will pay you to draw power from your EV

It now seems that everywhere you go, drivers end up having to pay for parking. But what if drivers didn’t pay for parking, but were paid to park instead. It’s already starting to happen.

Car giant Nissan – in a campaign to showcase what the industry is calling V2X (shorthand for bidirectional DC charging – either Vehicle-to-Home or Vehicle-to-Grid), Nissan is offering owners of electric vehicles equipped with the CHAdeMO charging protocol to pay for their parking, in exchange for the power Nissan will draw from the car batteries and send back to the grid.

In reality though, this is something that could only be done in Japan, for they are one of the few countries that currently allow V2X systems to connect to the grid, as well as being the only country where a large proportion of vehicles have the necessary CHAdeMO socket. (This is because Japan is where the CHAdeMO DC charging standard was developed).

However, only Nissan and Mitsubishi still use CHAdeMO for DC charging system – and the future for CHAdeMO is dim, for even Nissan’s next EV – the Nissan Ariya – will not be fitted with a CHAdeMO socket outside of Japan!

In Japan, Nissan has also entered agreements with local governments to use Nissan Leaf electric cars as mobile batteries that can supply energy during natural disasters. (By the way, natural disaster preparation was the main driver for Japan’s interest, and early development of, V2G and the CHAdeMO DC charging system).

In another partnership, the company is also re-purposing used EV batteries to power streetlights.

Whilst an important showcase of V2X for Japanese EV owners – it is probably slightly gimmicky for the rest of us as CCS V2X capability is still about 5 years away. (As described here).

Meanwhile, the rest of a new Nissan exhibition provides a series of glimpses into some of the possible near-futures for energy and transport.

The Café is powered by battery storage (in this case, Nissan Leafs), and the entire pavilion is designed to be run by zero emission electricity through the use via solar panels and hydro-electricity.

Visitors can experience Formula E driving through VR, as well as go for a drive in the new Nissan Ariya. In front of the Pavilion, the Mobility Hub will offer a variety of services, including EV car-sharing and rental bicycles.

The Nissan Pavilion, located near the company’s global headquarters in Yokohama, will be open to the public from 1 August to 23 October.