The Nissan Leaf was first produced in Japan in 2010, and then proceeded to be available around the world about a year later. Malaysia saw the Leaf entered the Malaysian market in 2013. What we are saying is that the Leaf has been around for quite some time, and people are asking, “What do we do with the EV old batteries?” Nissan seems to have an answer with their new portable power source.
Developed together with electronics maker JVCKenwood Corp. and 4R Energy Corp., a company co-owned by Nissan and Sumitomo Corp, the portable power station(it doesn’t have a fancy name yet) reuses the old Leaf batteries to supply power and act as a battery bank.
Nissan said that they are testing the batteries in Leafs that has been retired from normal use cycle, and reusing those that can still hold a charge. The battery pack, similar in size to a cooler box, contains two battery modules – each module roughly will have a capacity of around 0.5 KWh. A standard Leaf houses 48 modules for comparison.
Each power source, weighing 14.4KG each, will be sold for 170,500 yen (about RM5,416) in Japan with no overseas sales planned as of yet.
Repurposing old EV batteries is not a foreign concept – in Malaysia, BMW and EV Connection introduced a Mobile Charging vehicle during the recent Malaysia AutoShow 2023 – reusing end-of-lifecycle batteries from existing electrified BMW and MINI vehicles.
The Nissan portable power source is, however, the first solution designed for normal consumers. The application for the portable power station is immense – ranging from off-grid power supply to emergency uses during earthquakes or other natural disasters.
If you want to try out the Nissan Leaf, the same vehicle the portable power source is getting its batteries from, you can rent the car with GoCar here in Malaysia.
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