Pilot Program Uses EV Battery Power to Run Elevators

Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. and Hitachi Building Systems Co. Ltd., a Hitachi Ltd. Subsidiary, have announced a plan to roll out a system to keep elevators running during blackouts by drawing power from the batteries of electric vehicles (EVs), Reuters reports. In what appears to be an early attempt in earthquake-prone Japan to make wider use of EV batteries, the companies are focused on keeping elevators running when the power supply is disrupted. During the pilot project, the firms said they kept an elevator with capacity for nine people running at a slow speed for 10 h by drawing power from the battery of a Sakura, a fully electric micro “kei” car made by Nissan. The V2X system uses the CHAdeMO charging standard supported by Nissan, a Hitachi Building Systems executive said. This allows it to also draw power from larger Nissan EVs, such as the Ariya and Leaf models. Hitachi hopes to start providing the system to apartment buildings in the financial year starting in April.