The unit was unveiled as part of the Kan-kan-kyo sustainable demo house, built near the Nissan Global headquarters on Yokohama, Japan. It features a quick charge connector and a switch that lets owners draw electricity from the car during outages.

Although the impact of this device on the car’s range hasn’t been tested, a fully-charged LEAF carries enough energy to power an average Japanese household for two days, meaning even outages of a few hours shouldn’t reduce mileage too heavily.

Nissan is now testing, with the help of partners, ways to make the unit work with existing power systems and aims to have a commercially available version available by the end of this year, according to a statement yesterday.