Nissan Leaf owners should be able to use their cars to power their homes later this year.
Nissan Australia says owners of the new generation Nissan Leaf electric cars should have vehicle-to-home and possibly vehicle-to-grid capabilities towards the end of this year.
The new Nissan Leaf is the only car that is factory-approved to use its battery to power the home and provide services to the grid, but so far the 590 buyers of Nissan Leafs since they arrived on the Australia market last August have not had access to the bi-directional chargers needed to use their car as a battery on wheels.
That should change soon. The new trial involving 51 Nissan Leafs – to be leased mostly by the ACT government, in a project led by an ANU team and local utility ActewAGL – means that the bi-drectional chargers mounted on a wall will be available for purchase.
It won’t come cheap, however, with a ticket price for the Wallbox Quasar units – manufactured in Europe and pictured above – likely to be in the order of around $10,000.
Nissan’s Ben Warren says the REVS trial means that the necessary volume of the Wallbox units will be available in Australia by the end of the year.
By that time, Nissan Leaf owners should at least be able to power their house, in what is known as Vehicle-to-Home, meaning that they run their own appliances from the car, rather than drawing from the grid.
Full Vehicle-to-Grid capability is more complex, however, and it is not clear that this will be ready by the end of the year, although Warren is hopeful and the REVS program should speed up the process – a lot of collaboration and certification involving car makers, charging companies, retailers, network owners and market operators.
But Warren says there is goodwill all around. “All stakeholders are pretty keen to see this happen. We haven’t hit barriers of people saying no … but it takes time to stick all these all these moving pieces together.”
The Wallbox Quasar unit has just gone through certification in Germany and the UK, and Australia will be the third cab off the rank. (Nissan Leafs have V2G capabilities in Japan, but these are through different and much larger bi-directional charging units).
The Wallbox Quasar is being imported by JetCharge, which is also playing a key role in the REVS trial which will focus on the ability of multiple EVs to provide essential grid services, such as frequency control.
JetCharge says the wall box will transform how we view vehicles, transport and energy. And although expensive, it will give access to at 40kWh in the Nissan Leaf, and will cost less than a standard Tesla Powerwall 2.
JetCharge chief executive Tim Washington says the bi-directional charger will ke capable of 7kW output – more than most stand-alone batteries and enough to power most appliances, including air conditioners.
Washington believes that the best value for Nissan Leaf owners will be in vehicle-to-home rather than vehicle-to-grid, although the latter will appeal to fleet owners, because of their ability to group the assets together and tap market signals.
“This is about proving the technology, and it’s about true freedom,” Washington says. “You get to drive your battery around, fill it up at the local Woolies, and take it home to power the house.”
As for the price, Washington expects it to come down over time – as the price of EVs, battery storage and solar before it has done. This is for those that value the technology, rather than looking at spread sheets, he says.
