Owners of electric cars might soon be able to use their old car battery to run their household electricity, according to a leading Japanese automaker.

Nissan's senior vice-president of product planning, Andy Palmer, said the company - which is set to launch its Leaf electric small car in Australia in 2012 - is working on a business model whereby people use their old electric vehicle battery to generate cheap household power.

"A battery at the end of its automotive life has still got about 70 to 80 per cent of the charging capability that it had when it was new," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted him, as saying. With that in mind, the company is exploring ways to give the battery a "second life" once it is finished its automotive application.

"In Japan and the UK, electricity after midnight is about half the price of electricity during the day. So if you can put ex-car batteries in your house and charge up your batteries during the night at half the price, then run your house off the battery during the day, you save an awful amount of cost and you do your carbon footprint a fairly big favour," Palmer said. (ANI)