Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) has today concluded disaster cooperation agreements with Saitama Prefecture and the city of Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, together with MMC sales affiliates based in each of the two areas.

MMC is promoting the DENDO Community Support Program, which aims to create systems that can quickly provide electric vehicles to the local government when disasters occur. With these two agreements concluded, MMC has agreements with 21 local governments in Japan, as of the end of January.

The purpose of these agreements is to eliminate time taken to confirm required information with local governments when disasters occur, and to quickly provide disaster-affected areas, evacuation sites, and other places with MMC’s electric vehicles that can serve as power sources, such as the Outlander PHEV, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.

As a suburban area with many residents who commute to Tokyo, Saitama Prefecture has a large population and is engaging in disaster-preparedness efforts, which include measures to be ready for large numbers of people being unable to return home in the event of a major earthquake directly under Tokyo. Meanwhile, having recently marked 25 years since the Great Hanshin Earthquake disaster, the city of Kobe is putting together disaster response systems that utilize lessons learned from the past earthquake experience.

The Outlander PHEV has a function that can store the energy generated by its engine in its high-capacity drive battery as an external power supply when needed. These agreements will undoubtedly strengthen the disaster response systems of both Saitama Prefecture and Kobe, while helping the residents in their communities to be safer and more secure. Aiming to conclude disaster cooperation agreements with local governments throughout Japan by fiscal year 2022, MMC is working to promote the understanding and widespread use of EVs/PHEVs, and to strengthen support systems for disasters.

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