Electric car charging vending machine: Ten Japanese companies said they plan to install electric vehicle chargers at the sites of beverage vending machines across Japan in a cost-cutting tie-up.
Charging machines will be installed where beverage vending machines already exist or together with new ones.
SoftBank Telecom and SoftBank Mobile are due to provide telecom services to connect the charging systems, the group said in a press release.
Automakers such as Nissan, which launched its all-electric Leaf last year, are gambling that electric cars with zero tailpipe emissions will catch on and, some time in the future, start to drive traditional gas-guzzlers off the road.
But many consider the lack of a charging network as the key obstacle to the proliferation of electric vehicles, prompting consumer concerns such as “range-anxiety”, or the fear that their cars will run out of juice between charging points.