Nissan and 4R Energy win award for efforts to boost resilience with EVs

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and 4R Energy have been honored by the Association for Resilience Japan for their efforts to promote electrification, including the use of electric cars as emergency power sources during natural disasters.

The companies today received a Best Resilience Award in the business and industry category of the association’s 2020 Japan Resilience Awards.

The award recognizes the Blue Switch program started by Nissan in May 2018. The program promotes the use of electric vehicles to address issues related to disaster prevention, energy management, climate change, tourism, and population declines. In the past two years, more than 8 million households in Japan have experienced power outages due to natural disasters.

By the end of March 2020, Nissan will have concluded 31 agreements with local governments and companies on EV use during and after natural disasters. The agreements make electric cars available for local communities and citizens to use as power sources at evacuation centers and welfare facilities in the event of outages caused by natural disasters. This includes vehicles owned by local governments as well as ones used for car-sharing services and for test drives at Nissan dealerships.

Repurposing used electric-car batteries

As part of the efforts to boost resilience, 4R Energy has developed a stationary battery by repurposing used 40-kilowatt hour batteries from Nissan LEAF electric cars. The company, a joint venture between Nissan and Sumitomo Corp., has also developed a new product that allows customers to use electricity stored in EVs through V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) technology.

Trials to test operations using renewable energy stored in the stationary batteries have taken place at select 7-Eleven convenience stores in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture since September. The new V2X product, jointly developed by 4R Energy and IKS Co., Ltd., will come to market by the end of fiscal year 2020.

Nissan is the only carmaker honored at the 2020 Japan Resilience Awards. The awards are presented to companies and organizations that have contributed to developing a resilient society for the next generation through initiatives that build strength and flexibility in Japan, its regions, its people and its industries.

Nissan plans to further expand collaboration with local governments and companies through the Blue Switch program, and to continue promoting advanced energy management along with 4R Energy. As a global pioneer in electric vehicles, Nissan is dedicated to discovering and promoting new ways to use EVs to achieve a better future.