Old Nissan EV batteries power Opus camping trailer for a week

One of the less-talked about aspects of electric cars is what we'll do with batteries once they've worn down. Nissan has come up with a clever idea for how they could be used to provide power while camping, and it teamed with trailer manufacturer Opus to show it off.

The solution in question is called the Nissan ROAM, and it's a little cube full of old lithium-ion battery cells from "first-generation Nissan electric vehicles," which we assume includes the original Nissan Leaf, that hooks up to the Air Opus trailer shown above. This bundle of cells can store up to 700Wh of electricity, and can provide power output up to 1kW. It features a variety of outlets for powering small devices and appliances, and supplies power to the onboard lights and heating.

When combined with a 400W solar panel, Nissan says the ROAM can provide 7 days worth of power in the trailer. And that's electricity you can have anywhere. You don't need to use a noisy, polluting gas or diesel generator, and you don't need to be tied to a campsite with power hookups. Even if you camped somewhere you weren't getting much sun, you could take your ROAM somewhere to charge it up, which takes only an hour when plugged into a 230-volt power outlet.

As cool as the ROAM is, Nissan hasn't announced plans to put it into production. But we wouldn't be surprised if Nissan or some other company offers something similar in the near future. In fact, the company we would most expect to see with a product like this is Honda, which would be a great complement to its line of generators.