EVSE (charger) at my local dealer padlocked and cant charge

[hellraiser79]

My Navigation directed me to two different charging stations located at Nissan dealerships near my house. The navigation listed both stations as available and free. However, when i arrived at both dealerships, i was unable to charge as the EVSE was padlocked in the off position. I am extremely upset to see this and i have tried to contact the dealerships with no response received. The dealerships were Woodbury Nissan in Woodbury, Nj and also Team Nissan in Vineland, NJ. I do not understand why they are locked but listed as available to use. The charging stations at Cherry Hill Nissan are always available for me to use and never locked. The one at my house is always available for anyone to use, even if they dont have a Leaf. Anyone else have this problem?

 

[ColumbiaRiverGorge]

Our local dealer wants $3 an hour for L2, when it is 8 cents a Kwh in this area, what a joke.

 

[derkraut]

I suggest you report this to Nissan Customer Service. Especially the dealer who locked his charging stations. What a lousy way to promote the sale of Electric vehicles. :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

 

[tps]

Most dealers are clueless as to why Nissan wants them to have the charge stations. A public charge infrastucture is a necessary component to popularize EVs. Public charging at Nissan dealers was one way to jump-start the infrastructure build-out. In the larger picture, it costs the dealer very little; I'm not sure why there's so much resistance to it, especially since it's such a critical part of selling the LEAF. For whatever reason, Nissan seems to have been unable to get this message across to their US dealers.

While I'm flaming about public charging, let me point out that it cost me $14 for the connect time (they charge by connect time as opposed to charge time) on top of the $17 it cost to park at the Pennsylvania Convention Center garage for a bit less than 5 hours. This was well over $1 per kWh since I didn't charge the entire time I was connected; those must have been gold-plated electrons. Don't think I'll be using their services again... There aren't enough electric vehicles on the road yet to create competiton and end this price gouging. Imagine how drivers would revolt if gasoline suddently went to $25/gal...

 

[hellraiser79]

I sent an email to Nissan from the Leaf website. If it doesnt reach the right person, does anyone have a phone number or email address for someone at Nissan that will actually handle this? thanks I was able to charge at a friends house so i made it home, but im still pretty pissed off at the two dealerships with padlocks on their chargers. I wonder if they realize that a $10 set of boltcutters will defeat their silly little padlock. May have to add that to my emergency kit.

 

[hellraiser79]

I also charged at the convention center in philly. There was no charge to use the 8 chargers in the garage, but i did pay $28 to park for three hours while at the auto show. I had to find the chargers on my own, the parking lot attendants had no idea where they where. Are we talking about the same garage near 11th and Arch?

 

[coqui]

That's totally nuts that a dealership would padlock their chargers :evil:
I am on the PlugShare app and if someone needs a charge they can get it what's it going to cost me? $1?

 

[tps]

I also charged at the convention center in philly. There was no charge to use the 8 chargers in the garage, but i did pay $28 to park for three hours while at the auto show. I had to find the chargers on my own, the parking lot attendants had no idea where they where. Are we talking about the same garage near 11th and Arch?

Yep. Those are the ones. I had the same problem with the attendant at the Palmer Sq garage in Princeton. I couldn't find the charging spot. I asked and he didn't know what I was talking about, but as I looked up, I saw it right across from his booth.

 

[CWO4Mann]

I also charged at the convention center in philly. There was no charge to use the 8 chargers in the garage, but i did pay $28 to park for three hours while at the auto show. I had to find the chargers on my own, the parking lot attendants had no idea where they where. Are we talking about the same garage near 11th and Arch?

Yep. Those are the ones. I had the same problem with the attendant at the Palmer Sq garage in Princeton. I couldn't find the charging spot. I asked and he didn't know what I was talking about, but as I looked up, I saw it right across from his booth.

You are fortunate .. our Nashville garages haven't got that far yet. They are in a monopoly controlled by the Central Parking outfit and "Colonel" Monroe Carrell who makes Big Daddy of the TV series look like a piker.

 

[redLEAF]

My Navigation directed me to two different charging stations located at Nissan dealerships near my house. The navigation listed both stations as available and free. However, when i arrived at both dealerships, i was unable to charge as the EVSE was padlocked in the off position. I am extremely upset to see this and i have tried to contact the dealerships with no response received. The dealerships were Woodbury Nissan in Woodbury, Nj and also Team Nissan in Vineland, NJ. I do not understand why they are locked but listed as available to use. The charging stations at Cherry Hill Nissan are always available for me to use and never locked. The one at my house is always available for anyone to use, even if they dont have a Leaf. Anyone else have this problem?

You didn't mention if the dealer was open or not? My dealer (McGrath Nissan in Elgin, IL) has an L3 charger but they are only turned on during business hours -- so far free of charge. I can understand (a bit) turning them off while the dealership is closed because many have gates that close off their lot's etc. so you wouldn't want to get locked in. Not defending the dealer but their charging policies should be consistent with Nissan corporate and should be covered if you bought from them as to when available and why when not, etc.

 

[garygid]

Since they did not report asking somebody nicely to "please, may I use one of your charging stations", it is likely that the dealership was closed.

It is not unusual to find EVSEs broken, in use, blocked, inaccessible, or otherwise unavailable, especially after hours.

If you are planning on needing a charge to complete your trip, it is always best to call ahead, ask permission, and make arrangements. Also, it is often prudent to have a Plan B (and Plan C) to cover unforeseen circumstances (breakage, another user, etc.).

 

[defiancecp]

As far as reporting to someone who will take care of it, I wouldn't get my hopes up. In the past when dealerships have been antagonistic about charger usage, Nissan has clearly stated that it's up to the dealerships how they want to handle the chargers. Others have suggested that Nissan needs to remove dealerships from the nav then, but again nissan has chosen to ignore this advice.

 

[Roadburner440]

Pomoco Nissan here charges a $10 connection fee during business hours to connect to L2.. Luckily with the Volt it is cheaper for me to buy the Premium gasoline than pay for public charging. Is one of the main reasons on my "3 days with a Leaf" test drive I made sure it will make it everywhere me and my wife need to go in Norfolk, and back without charging. In my mind the prices people want for these public chargers is rediculous.. The Nissan dealer we chose to buy our Leaf from (Hall Nissan of Chesapeake) however had no issue with us charging our Volt at no cost. Even before they knew we were going to buy a car through them. It is ultimately the reason they got our business as they were very EV friendly even to a person with a competitors car. Not to mention they also let us have their demo Leaf for the 3 days to see if it really would work for us before buying one... So I guess the take away from that is some dealers fully support EV's, and others are just going to try and make as much money off of them as they can. Personally I think this is a very bad practice as this will cause people to think twice about getting a full EV. Especially when even at current gas prices it would still be cheaper in some cases than paying to public charge. Unfortunately you don't have that option with the Leaf, and that is why I think it is garbage what these people are trying to pull with the public EVSE's.

 

[smkettner]

Maybe the increased electric bill put them out of business :roll: :lol:

 

[planet4ever]

You didn't mention if the dealer was open or not? My dealer (McGrath Nissan in Elgin, IL) has an L3 charger but they are only turned on during business hours -- so far free of charge.

A dealer with a Quick Charger? That's the first one I've heard of at a dealer in the US! Given the expense of those units and the rate they can suck electricity, I wouldn't expect free usage to last, or to spread. Incidentally, the correct terminology is QC, not L3. AFAIC only the US standards committee has talked about L3. Their proposal, which includes high amperage AC as well as DC, is incompatible with the CHAdeMO QC.

Ray

 

[redLEAF]

You didn't mention if the dealer was open or not? My dealer (McGrath Nissan in Elgin, IL) has an L3 charger but they are only turned on during business hours -- so far free of charge.

A dealer with a Quick Charger? That's the first one I've heard of at a dealer in the US! Given the expense of those units and the rate they can suck electricity, I wouldn't expect free usage to last, or to spread. Incidentally, the correct terminology is QC, not L3. AFAIC only the US standards committee has talked about L3. Their proposal, which includes high amperage AC as well as DC, is incompatible with the CHAdeMO QC.

Ray

OK, QC; it was a L3 as the customer service person said kind of bragged that we can 'charge you up in 20 to 30 minutes' --- our Walgreen's have these same QC chargers as well but waiting on the system to be up and running; the L2's are still free at Walgreen's around here but you'll need the card (which thanks to others on the forum should arrive free soon as well). To be honest, have not had the need for any charger other than the one in our garage but once I get this free card may plan to use one just to see how well their system works.

 

[garygid]

What brand/make of QC is at the dealer and at Walgreens?
Thanks.

 

[Randy3]

I suspect the dealer's equipment may be L2, not QC.

L2's have been incorrectly identified as Quick Chargers (stated as L3) by two local Nissan Dealers where I live. After they tell me about their QC equipment, I connect it to my L2 port on the car and explain to them that if their equipment was really QC, the connection would be made to my QC port, not my L1/L2 port. I then show them the car's ports, so they will understand in the future.

 

[Luft]

Our local dealer wants $3 an hour for L2, when it is 8 cents a Kwh in this area, what a joke.

Yep. This is what I've been screaming about. These people have visions of buckets of money pouring in from L2 chargers. I was totally put off when Blink announced its pricing of up to $2.50 per hour! These people got about 100 MILLION BUCKS from a government grant to put these things in and now their going to try to stick it to us?!

Nissan better wake up. If they are serious about selling EVs they need to. insure that EV drivers get a great deal on fuel because the range of the car isn't. I don't really care about L2 chargers. They are just too slow to be a good range extender. What I do care about is DC QC stations. Those are what will give me extended range.

If Nissan has any common sense they will realise that they need to deploy their inexpensive DC QC stations in a big way and control the price. Imagine if most Nissan dealers had these stations and LEAF owners could sign up for an access subscription at a flat rate. Maybe $40 or $50 per month and you could go to any Nissan dealer any hour of the day or night and juice up. No extra fee.

I think most subscribers would still mostly charge at home just because it easier than waiting around the DC QC station for 20 minutes a day so Nissan would still make money and LEAF owners could go across country if they wanted to. Win win.

 

[redLEAF]

What brand/make of QC is at the dealer and at Walgreens?
Thanks.

They are 350Green's units; someone over on the Chicagoland thread has been in touch and should have more info later -- the L2's are ChargePoint for which I now have a (free) card for. The Walgreen's I've seen with these have them almost side by side but they are two different systems. As to the mention that the dealer's is a L2 and not a QC haven't personally seen it as I was in a hurry picking up my car (from the firmware update) but sending a PM to a few who have visited that dealer more recently to see if they used it --- I'd be surprised that the tech at the counter would have confused what turns out to be a slower all day charge from a QC but its possible.

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