Imagine rolling into a parking space and paying for it not with money, but with a bit of the electricity from your EV’s battery. If Nissan has its way, this could be the case in the near future.
Autoblog notes that the automaker has opened an exhibition space in Yokohama, the Pavilion, that lets you pay for parking by sending electricity from the Leaf and other EVs into the building. You won’t have to worry about the cost of trip (beyond whatever it costs to recharge elsewhere, of course).
It’s meant as a demonstration of Nissan’s Energy Share and electricity storage technologies, such as the use of Leaf cars to power homes and city infrastructure during disasters.
The implications are much broader, of course. This hints at a future where building and park owners could ask you to share some of your electricity to discount or eliminate your parking fees. You’d likely have to pay for the electricity at some point (if just by installing solar panels at home), and it wouldn’t be surprising if some operators kept charging money to reduce urban congestion.
When this pay-with-electricity makes sense, though, it could lower the cost of traveling while keeping the lights on.
