Give a car some fuel and it can cruise for a day.
Teach a car to fuel and it can cruise for a lifetime … or at least until it needs a tuneup.
That’s essentially the thinking behind a new “future of mobility” concept project that came about after a yearlong collaboration between Nissan and sustainable architecture firm Foster + Partners.
The carmaker just teamed up with the design studio to envision a future where a car can be its own fuel station by using a combination of vehicle-to-grid, wireless charging, autonomous drive functions and over-the-air connectivity technology.
“We believe that the future of transportation is reliant on both infrastructure and the environment,” says Nissan Europe chairman Paul Willcox. “We’re looking for real, workable solutions that go beyond the product.”
Nissan is putting the concept to the test by experimenting with a vehicle-to-grid system in Europe that will allow cars to function as “energy hubs” that can store, use and return clean energy to the grid by utilizing newly developed second-life batteries.
It may not be the flying, time-traveling, laser-beam-shooting future car we were hoping for, but it’s a start.
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