Nissan, in partnership with the uYilo e-Mobility program in South Africa, is to demonstrate its revolutionary technology that allows power stored in electric vehicles to be used in a range of home and commercial applications.
The Nissan LEAF – the only commercial electric vehicle used for bi-directional energy transfer capability – is being used in a uYilo field test program to demonstrate and develop Nissan’s award-winning charger technology in South Africa.
Once implemented, it will allow LEAF owners to use the vehicle’s battery capacity in a variety of ways in addition to driving.
Comprising Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) and Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) systems, the technology allows use of the Nissan LEAF’s battery not only for mobility, but for multiple energy storage uses and applications.
The technology was first rolled out in Japan in 2012 when Nissan launched the “LEAF to home” power supply system. The system transfers the energy stored in the LEAF’s battery to a dedicated V2H station, providing power for household needs.
The technology has been further developed to deliver V2G, allowing energy in the battery to be traded with municipal and energy utilities to increase capacity, while also providing the opportunity to stabilize the grid during peak electricity usage.
Heading the technology localization program is Hiten Parmar, director of the uYilo e-Mobility Program hosted by Port Elizabeth’s Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University engineering innovation hub, eNtsa.
uYilo – bringing together government entities and industries, alongside car manufacturing stakeholders – is tasked with fast-tracking the development and commercialization of key technologies that will support the electric vehicle industry. Since the establishment of uYilo as the national e-Mobility program in 2013 by the Technology Innovation Agency, the Nissan LEAF has been used in various field tests.
uYilo has initiated the technology localization study after receiving support from Nissan in Japan to explore local development of the bi-directional technology. This follows acquisition of the necessary specifications by Nissan’s quick-charge partner CHAdeMO.
