In a global first, Nissan is giving its EV customers the ability to pay for parking with electricity.

Electric vehicle drivers will be able to discharge power from their car’s battery pack to pay for parking while visiting the newly-opened Nissan Pavilion exhibition space in Yokohama.

The payment system is just one of the many innovations customers can experience at the Pavilion, built to show how Nissan moves people to a better world. Visitors can eat at the Nissan Chaya Cafe, operating on power supplied by Nissan Leaf electric cars and solar energy. 

The 10,000-square-metre, zero-emission Pavilion is outfitted with solar panels and supplied with renewable hydroelectric power.

“The Pavilion is a place where customers can see, feel, and be inspired by our near-future vision for society and mobility,” said Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida.

“As the world shifts to electric mobility, EVs will be integrated into society in ways that go beyond just transportation.”

Nissan introduced the world’s first mass-market electric car, the zero-emission Leaf, in 2010. Since then, the company has partnered with governments and businesses around the world to expand the uses of EVs.

The company’s Nissan Energy Share and Nissan Energy Storage technologies allow electricity from EV batteries to be stored, shared and repurposed, for instance by powering homes or businesses.

In Japan, Nissan has also entered agreements with local governments to use Leaf cars as mobile batteries that can supply energy during natural disasters. In another partnership, the company is repurposing used EV batteries to power streetlights.  Nissan aims to sell more than 1 million electrified vehicles a year by the end of fiscal 2023.