When the Nissan Leaf hits the market late next year, there’s a chance it will ship with an iPhone application that’ll allow drivers to call in to their vehicles and check things like battery levels. Recently demonstrated in Yokosuka, Japan, this savvy piece of tech allows the phone to link up to the Leaf’s built-in IT system and relay the status of the car’s lithium-ion batteries directly back to the screen. Now while this may sound a bit gimmicky, it does make a lot of sense if your car happens to be hooked up to a public charging system where, instead of constantly walking up and down to monitor the charging situation, you can just push call and get an instant power update delivered over the airwaves. Besides monitoring juice levels, Nissan’s iPhone application also allows Leaf owner’s to fire up their air-conditioning unit before they enter the cabin so it’s nice and chilled by the time they arrive. As the car will still be plugged into the mains, this feature will significantly reduce the drain on the battery as owners will not need to bring the temperature of the interior down during the first few minutes of driving.