The City of Danville, Va., will be adding four electric vehicles permanently to its fleet thanks to a donation from bi-directional EV charging startup Fermata Energy under a Tobacco Commission grant.

The vehicles, 2015 and 2016 Nissan Leafs, were provided to the city by Fermata Energy in 2016 as part of a two-year research and development grant from the Virginia Tobacco Commission.

Fermata used Danville as a testing ground for its vehicle-to-x (V2X) power storage technology. According to the Danville Register & Bee, during the two-year trial, Fermata set up V2X bidirectional chargers in the city; while the vehicles were plugged up and charged, they provided energy to the city’s power grid.

Fermata’s Director of Fleet and Business Development Facundo Tassara said the company wants to donate the vehicles to the city as a way of saying thank you for being a partner city in the experiment.

“When the terms of that grant came to an end, we weren’t required to give [the city] the chargers or vehicles, but because of the fact that they’ve been such fantastic partners with us and have been so helpful throughout the whole process, we decided that we wanted to donate them,” he said.

Danville’s fleet currently includes a few hybrid and propane vehicles, City Manager Ken Larking told the Danville Register & Bee. Danville Utilities Director Jason Grey told the news publication that the cars were used for work-related travel between businesses and field work, and that they go about 100 miles per charge.

Fermata will transfer ownership of the vehicles in March, upon completion of the project.

*Visit the Fermata Energy and Nissan North America booths at the Government Fleet Expo & Conference in June.