A Nissan Leaf is being used to power the Christmas display at the brand’s Sunderland plant, demonstrating the car’s ability to act as a mobile power plant.

A Nissan Leaf is being used to power the Christmas display at the brand’s Sunderland plant.

The lights on the 32-foot Christmas tree and its shimmering reindeer are being powered by the vehicle’s battery, using V2X (snappily revised by Nissan as V2X-MAS TREE) technology.

The display celebrates the 250,000 Leaf to roll off the line at the plant, but also demonstrates the potential of EVs for energy storage.

Alan Johnson, vice president manufacturing at Nissan Sunderland Plant, said: “Passing a quarter of a million Nissan Leaf is a tremendous milestone, and demonstrates the electric vehicle manufacturing expertise we have built up at our plant over the past decade.

“This year we have completely electrified the plant’s line-up with the new versions of Qashqai and Juke launched, so lighting up the Christmas tree with our original EV is a spectacular and appropriate way to end 2022.”

The Leaf is one of only a few EV models capable of bidirectional charging at present, although various trials have shown the benefits of the tech – including a three-year project between Ovo Energy and Nissan. Earlier this month, a new report from intelligent power management firm Eaton found that UK homeowners could significantly offset their EV charging costs if bidirectional EV charging was made widely possible.

The Leaf’s vehicle-to-grid capability (sometimes called vehicle-to-building or vehicle-to-everything – V2X) puts energy management back in the hands of the owner by turning their vehicle into a mobile energy hub. Drivers can store electricity in their vehicle’s battery and feed it to the grid, their building, or their Christmas Tree, when needed.

The technology allows electric vehicles to be fully integrated into the electricity grid and help improve grid capability to handle renewable power as well as managing energy more efficiently.

In 2021, Nissan announced that it’s transforming its Sunderland Plant to become the home of EV36ZERO, a £1bn flagship electric vehicle manufacturing ecosystem bringing together electric vehicles, renewable energy and battery production.