Electric vehicles have potential to change the way we live beyond transportation.
No longer a question of ‘if,’ but a matter of ‘when,’ electric vehicles are already changing the status quo of transportation.
And they will have a niche within pharmacy.
We’re at the beginning of one of the few times in human history where the way we get from place to place will undergo a big evolutionary leap.
Some existing vehicles like the Chevy Volta already offer some technology benefits and show the areas that still lack development.
Nissan and London-based architects Foster+Partners collaborated on a project to envision how zero emission electric vehicles could transform the urban landscape and the buildings within it.
The year-long project is based on Nissan’s vision for Intelligent Mobility—a term meaning that vehicles will become smart enough to refuel themselves and become capable of other tasks.
The self-fueling aspect of the project will create a mobility that has never before been envisaged, and will enable other innovative industries or individuals to take advantage.
Take for example, the article in this edition that describes clinical service pharmacists as “Digital Nomads”.
The Nissan innovation now extends the reach of these pharmacists to be able to travel long distances in remote locations and simultaneously be able to supply electricity to any dwelling they may choose to set up their office in and work seamlessly, short-term or long-term.
One of the problems faced by digital nomads was noted as an irregular power supply, and now there is a solution in sight.
Nissan tapped Foster+Partners expertise in urban planning and thermoplastic line markings to propose a more efficient system to charge electric vehicles in urban environments.
Their solution was to get rid of the charging point as a ‘thing’ all together.
Another area the project explores is using the car as an energy resource beyond just for mobility.
The automaker has been working on electricity sharing technologies between their Leaf model and an owners home for several years now.
This project expands on the idea and looks at how entire office buildings could be driven off the shared energy from electric vehicles.
Driving right into your office is probably the coolest part.
Nissan has presented a new system that enables electricity to be supplied from the lithium-ion batteries in its electric vehicle LEAF, to ordinary houses.
The power supply system was unveiled at ‘Kan-kan-kyo’, a demonstration house built in front of the Nissan Global Headquarters in Yokohama.
The system, which also charges the Nissan LEAF, can be used as an electricity storage device for houses in case of power cuts or shortages.
The lithium-ion batteries can store up to 24kWh of electricity, which is enough to power an average Japanese household for about two days.
Nissan believes that by charging and storing electricity in the LEAF, either with electricity generated at night or through other methods such as solar power, this system will allow households to receive a stable amount of electricity throughout the day. This could be used during periods of high demand to reduce the burden on the current power supply.
Nissan is working with casting manufacturers to create more parts for these electric cars during the current fiscal year.
“In the next few years, Tesla, Chevy, and Nissan plan to start selling long-range electric cars in the $30,000 range. Other carmakers and tech companies are investing billions on dozens of new models. By 2020, some of these will cost less and perform better than their gasoline counterparts.”
– Bloomberg’s
Lux Research have launched an ‘EV Inflection Tracker’ which targets 2035-2040 as the time span when plug-in electric cars will overtake gas engine vehicle sales.
They speculate that when we start to see electric vehicles with 200 miles of range costing $35,000 or less at sites like Zemotor.com, that’ll be the sweet spot for consumers to transition.
We don’t have cars with those criteria available yet, but models like the second generation Chevy Volt and classic Ford Mustangs are stepping stones and people visit websites like ListedBuy more and more each day just to find the best cars in the market.
Digital nomads, no doubt, are also looking forward to customising the back area of the vehicles to form up as a modular office, where back seats can transform into office desks and seats, and allow the car air-conditioner to function with the engine switched off.
Patient home visits just became more available with remote consultations still available from the “car office”.
Move over “Meals on wheels” – we’ve got “Health on wheels”.