The Watanabe family often goes out by car. I need a car for now because my child is small and I feel sick at night and have to go to the hospital.
However, since I own a hybrid car now, the fuel cost is lower than that of a gasoline car, but parking fee, tax, insurance fee, vehicle inspection fee, repair and maintenance costs are high. At that time, the existence of the Japanese venture "Slow life", which is attracting attention for new businesses using EV, changed Mr. Watanabe's way of thinking about automobiles.
"Slow life", which was launched by four people independent of the energy industry and automobile parts manufacturers, is a business model of the idea of "extracting electricity from EV" born from the ideathon by the four people, and "EV-only carsharing". We arrived at the businesses of "sharing," "sharing energy," and "energy-free." Initially, it was difficult to understand, but it caught the eye of a major Japanese automobile manufacturer, and the situation changed completely when it was decided to collaborate. The momentum to support the disruptor from Japan has risen, and the latest all-solid-state battery, which has a larger capacity and longer life than the conventional lithium-ion battery, has been procured with a high output motor and excellent regenerative function. In addition, funds have been steadily gathered from the automobile manufacturer, electric power companies, real estate companies, battery manufacturers, banks, and so on.
In "Slow life," the first base for storing cars was opened in the city center where the condominium and office are close to each other. Mr. Watanabe, who had made a reservation for a test drive online to collect information, went out to experience it.

It was time to experience the service, and when I stood beside the vehicle, it was unlocked and I was able to enter the vehicle. Then, when I said "start" after wearing the seatbelt, the car was started by the voice recognition system and was ready to start. Even if a person who has not applied for the service does the same thing, it cannot be authenticated, unlocked, or activated. Based on the biometric information pre-registered in the app, the omnidirectional camera and microphone built into the side window authenticate the person.

​A non-contact charger that utilizes solar panels installed on the premises is buried in the ground of the base where the vehicle is parked, and the vehicle is constantly charged. In the future, by adopting this mechanism on public roads, energy-free EVs will be realized.
By the way, in the test drive, because it was a course that slowly went around the facility, I could not experience full-scale power performance such as acceleration, but Mr. Watanabe was also strongly attracted to the business model I heard at the office after that, and they are the ones who drive the car. I realized that it was a paradigm shift.

There were two interesting points.
The first point is that in conventional car sharing, if the vehicle does not operate, it is simply parked, but in the case of "Slow life", the vehicle quickly changes to power storage that repeatedly sells and buys electricity when it is not operating. That's the point. The state of each vehicle at the bases that will be expanded nationwide in the future will be managed in the cloud, and if the price drops in the electricity sales market, a bid (buy) will be made, and if it becomes high, an offer (sell) will be made to automatically buy and sell electricity. On the other hand, it will also focus on the sustainable energy power generation equipment business such as solar power and wind power, and allocate the power to the car sharing business and the electricity trading business.

Second, all payments for service delivery are completed within the app. Users who use "Slow life" can register their credit card information in the "Slow life app" at the time of enrollment, and after using it, the charges including insurance premiums will be payment No complicated procedures or payment are required. revenue earned from buying and selling electricity exceed the upper limit set by "Slow life", points are automatically distributed to members as dividends. Of course, this point can be redeemed for 1 point = 1 yen, and if you link it with a transportation card, you can shop on your smartphone with the app and use public transportation.
The new way of interacting with these cars, the ease of understanding that the electricity bill in use is free, and the idea of buying and selling energy using cars and returning them to members make us feel a paradigm shift in cars. public entity such as cities and hospitals, convenience store chains, real estate companies that manage large condominiums, etc. in the event of a disaster or power outage. right.