Hi all...a few bits from my encounters w Nissan folks at the show yesterday (sorry for the length!):
- Talked to Jeff K and pushed again for him to come back here. I get the sense he's a bit intimidated to show up
until he can provide substantive answers, but I've assured him radio silence is worse.
- Also tracked down the origin of the "corporate policy" keeping US Nissan folks from participating here. Again, common in corporations, but he now understands better how it's contributing to some of the current community concerns and tension with Nissan. And I had the general conversation about getting more of their people involved both here and elsewhere with at least five different execs last night (a few of them not for the first time.) Particularly with Mark and Katherine's departure, I'd love to see them get more of the team "out there" so you all can get to know them and vice-versa. Will keep negotiating this, but came away having at least made actual progress in unraveling the corporate culture/policy sources contributing to this issue.
- Nissan is totally on board with the battery issue "task force" (gotta come up with better names for these things...) Not that I gave them much choice!
But every single person thought it was a great idea. As I mentioned, a few questions have basically been worked out and are threading their way through the corporate and legal "blessing" process before being announced. Sounds like that will take a few weeks. However, I know the gist- and while it may not be as much as some have asked for yet, I think you'll agree that it's truly a step in the right direction, for all LEAF drivers.
I'm still encouraging some sort of "town hall" meeting or similar real-time conversation on this topic, regardless of any announcements in the meantime. Ideally in AZ, but I think better elsewhere or even webcast than not at all. And Nissan is still interested (I've heard repeatedly that Andy really wants to come out himself) but if it comes together, it probably won't happen until January. So, I've proposed that we use that time- that the task force (and anyone else who wants to help) come up with a list of all the main questions you want answered on this topic and get it to them asap, so they'll have plenty of time to get answers and can give as much info as possible at the actual meeting. A few of these have already come up in the video, etc., and I know the rest could be found by digging through the forum pages. But we'd be far more effective at doing that (and more quickly!) than they would. And we may not get every answer- but I'm hoping to minimize the "we'll have to get back to you's" at the actual meeting because they didn't understand what questions would come up.
- Lastly for now, I've also been talking to them a lot about considering ways to include and involve members of the advisory group and/or local drivers in events as well as take advantage of having execs in town for auto shows and the like to have more direct conversations with you guys, even informally. For example, I'd have loved to get even a handful of you passes to the show yesterday, and grab an upstairs convention center room for an hour to chat with Jeff K, Brian Carolin and/or whomever else could join. (Of course, it's always fun to walk the show too, esp on media day!) Nothing formal, but it seems silly to me not to use the opportunities to carve out a little time when those guys are in town, even if not for LEAF stuff. And in fairness, Tim Gallagher tried hard to help make that come together at the last minute, but with relevant folks scattered about for the holiday weekend, we just couldn't make it happen this time. But will keep on that, too.