After moving to Ibaraki, I found myself without a car on weekends. Public transport going into Tokyo is decent, but getting around locally can be a pain if you only have infrequent buses to rely on. With petrol prices ever on the rise, I used this opportunity to get myself a small EV runaround – a Mitsubishi i-MiEV.
It was the perfect move – for many years I was afraid to get behind the wheel due to anxiety around driving, but the i-MiEV is so quiet that driving has actually become a lot more enjoyable for me.
And with use limited to the local shops and pottering around on the weekend, the short range has been less of a problem than I thought.
Having owned an EV for over 6 months though, the reasons why EV adoption is so slow in Japan have become quite clear.
A Short History
Japan did lead the pack in innovation – the release of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV (pronounced eye-meev) in 2009 and the Nissan Leaf shortly after in 2010 paved the way for other manufacturers to bring their EVs to the market.
At the time however, high purchase prices and a short range meant that many were hesitant to buy.
Chademo, the DC fast-charging standard that is present on many of these older EVs, is reflected in the charging infrastructure in Japan. Other than Tesla (thanks Elon..) the majority of fast chargers are Chademo, comparted to CCS in the Western world.
This means that most DC fast-chargers are stuck at charging speeds of 50 kW, or as is the case for many kombini (convenience stores), 20 kW. 300 kW chargers like those seen the US for example is a pipe dream, and upgrading this existing infrastructure will be extremely expensive and time consuming. As a result, those that need something longer distance will have to put up with longer charging times, even if their car supports faster changing rates.
The Year of the EV?
Jointly developed by Mitsubishi and Nissan, a new pair of kei-class EVs were announced: the Mitsubishi eK-X EV and the Nissan Sakura. There has been little in battery technology innovation, as both feature a range of just 180 km, virtually unchanged from the now defunct i-MiEV, which is slightly disappointing. The eK-X EV is identical in looks to its gasoline-run sibling, in a plan to shake off the quirky toy-like stereotype of EVs, while the Sakura features a new design of its own.
Taking into account government grants, these newly announced EVs are said to be the key to EV adoption in Japan, due to their relatively low cost of entry, and them being kei-class – this means they come with many tax breaks compared to regular sized cars.
So if the so called “year of the EV” is to become a reality, we need to think about those who don’t have the luxury to charge at home, such as myself. With around 40% of people choosing to rent, charging infrastructure needs to change to accommodate this.
The Charging Situation in Japan
Nissan tried to help those without access to home charging with their ZESP 2 charging plan – unlimited fast-charging for just 2,000 yen a month. However, new registrations for this service came to an end in 2019, and their new ZESP 3 plan comes at a much higher monthly cost.
That’s fine if you want to pay a premium for fast charging, but what about regular level 2 charging?
Looking at a map of charging stations, many level 2 chargers are situated at poorly located (i.e. nothing much to do in the vicinity) car dealers, and with most allowing just one hour of charging. This might be useful for someone with a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), but not so much for someone with a pure EV. It’s no surprise that these chargers are mostly found at Toyota dealers, who, until fairly recently were vehemently against EVs and were placing all their bets on hydrogen cars.
Even worse, many of the very early charging points used 3G cell signals to operate. With au (one of the “big 3” mobile providers) ending 3G service just a few months ago, this led to affected charging points being forced to move to a difference charging platform by, you guessed it – Toyota. This created fragmentation in the charging infrastructure and is potentially more confusing, especially for new EV drivers. It doesn’t help either that the pricing for these “refurbished” charging points has increased in most cases, too.
This leaves chargers at shopping malls (AEON, Ito Yokado etc.) the best option – great if you live close, not so much if it’s far away. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather get my groceries at the local supermarket a couple of minutes away than drive 20/30 mins away just because they have chargers.
Charging at Home for Renters
So you might say trying to charge from your flat might work. Despite the generous government grant for charging infrastructure, many landlords are hesitant to even consider adding charging equipment – if petrol cars are all they know, why would they want to go through all the effort just to help a single tenant? This leaves us with the classic chicken and egg problem.
In fact, I tried going through a company that does most of the heavy lifting for landlords – as long as the landlord is on board, they will sort of the construction and filling out of forms for the grant. This is in exchange for them using their charging payment system.
There was nothing much I could do to convince the landlord/management company though, as the call back relating to my request was a flat out no, and nothing I said would convince them otherwise. Their excuse? The car park is a shared space, so installing a plug socket for a single tenant was out of the question.
So for the large majority of flat dwellers, home charging is a no-go, unless you want to run a cord out the window on dismally slow level 1 charging.
What Needs to Change
As someone who is renting, the biggest problem I have faced is resistance from my management company in regards to adding charging to the property. And the answer to this is not just grants, but movement from the government to require charging equipment on all new builds, and requests for charging equipment by EV owners to be granted by law.
But with the overly generous government subsidies on petrol, and given the glacial response here to climate change here in Japan, I’m not getting my hopes up.