Japan Wants To Boost the Use of Electric Vehicles as a Power Source During Natural Disasters (qz.com)

Japan, a country which frequently suffers natural calamities such as tsunamis, typhoons, and earthquakes is looking to further harness the power of batteries used in electric vehicles (EVs) during such disasters, local media reports. From a report: Nissan, which produces the Leaf, the world's best-selling EV model, plans to hold an event in March to let people stay overnight in their cars and try using the electricity stored in their car batteries to simulate the experience of being in an emergency, according to Japanese newswire Jiji. A fully charged electric vehicle can supply power to a standard home for up to four days, a Nissan official told the news outlet. The company last year came to an agreement with Tokyo's Nerima Ward and the city of Yokosuka to provide EVs for free in emergency situations. Nerima also last year (link in Japanese) implemented a system whereby owners of EVs would be able to loan their vehicles out for free to those in need during a disaster, and also started using EVs for its fleet of police patrol cars.

Comments

Re:So...

[AmiMoJo]

In Japan everyone pulls together in the event of a natural disaster. Some of it is legal requirements, such as being required to leave the keys in your car if you abandon it so that emergency services can move it, and some of it is just people doing the right thing.

For example many vending machines switch to free vend in the event of an emergency, and some even offer charging for mobile phones. I'm sure many drivers would be happy to loan their battery to where it is needed, e.g. evacuation centres or medical centres, or even just one house in the neighbourhood where everyone was going to spend the night.