Future EVs may power your house
Nissan, Mitsubishi and Toyota are developing electric vehicles that can serve as a generator, suitable to power a home for a couple days in case of a blackout, The New York Times reports.
Electric vehicles use an electric rechargeable motor and serve as an energy efficient alternative to standard automobiles. They require fewer car repairs than gas-powered vehicles, and as a result, they're much more cost-efficient, U.S. Department of Energy states. The three automakers are aiming to increase and upgrade their vehicle-to-grid car batteries.
"V2G has legs," said George Augustaitis, senior automotive analyst for Mintel International, to The New York Times. "I think every automotive manufacturer is looking at an approach to using vehicles to flow energy from the car to the power lines and back."
In August of 2011, Nissan announced its new electric motor system will be offered within the fiscal year. According to the automaker, the Leaf's 24-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery can supply six kilowatts of power to a residence for up to two days. Although Nissan hasn't revealed the cost of the new battery, this stands to be a ground-breaking addition to EVs.
Before the March earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, Nissan began developing the new engine. The necessity for this technology became even more apparent after the disaster and Nissan increased its efforts to finalize the project as soon as possible, according to the news source.
North Americans will have access to this technology in a couple years, Maurice Durand, Mitsubishi spokesperson, suggests. As millions of East Coast residents experienced a blackout following Hurricane Irene, electric cars with these generator-like batteries may be desirable.
In addition, Toyota plans on installing V2G technology to its 2012 Prius, first available only to the Japanese market.
"There are some reports out of Japan, but we're not planning any sort of system powering your house from your car," John Hanson, a Toyota spokesperson, told the news source.
University of Delaware Professor Willett Kempton, has supported V2G batteries since their inception. Along with his students, he experiments with V2G cars regularly, connecting them to grids and testing their overall electrical capacity. Professor Kempton is a retailer for PJM Interconnection, a wholesale electrical organization, and he states that V2G cars will see moderate sales during 2012, but they will exponentially rise during 2014 and 2015.
