Under the name The Reborn Light Nissan is launching a pilot project in which, from the beginning of April 2018, in the small town of Namie in the prefecture of Fukushima, street lights will be fitted with recycled car batteries . The car manufacturer is cooperating on the project with its subsidiary 4R Energy, which develops loading systems for electric cars. It has designed a new form of street lights. Standing around 4.2 m high, a solar panel at the top generates energy. The batteries are housed in the base of the light. They come first and foremost from the Nissan Leaf , the best-selling electric car in the world.

With the new lights Nissan hopes, above all, to supply light to places where there is no underground electricity cable. But they are also suitable (for example) for earthquake regions, where there is a risk of power outages. Namie was severely damaged in the tsunami in 2011, which also caused the disaster in the Fukushima nuclear power station. If the pilot project is a success, further solar-powered street lights will be installed there. A recycling plant for car batteries will also be constructed in Namie.