At the LEAF promotional event at Downtown Nissan last weekend, I spoke with the AeroVironment Project Manager responsible for deployment of the QC stations for Nissan and, I believe, other Sumitomo QC's in So. Cal and previously in Hawaii. On his laptop, he showed me a portal at www.evnet.avinc.com/evportal where the status of Nissan QC's and other networked charging stations can be monitored in real time for operational status. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to know (or didn't want to say) how to gain access, set up an account, etc. (My impression was it was the first case, and that someone else had set up the access for him.)
I also asked him about the odd external cooling fan exposure on the QC units, and he said that was one of the first things AeroVironment looked at when evaluating and testing these Sumitomo boxes, before deciding to sell and support them. He said they performed very demanding tests and complete teardowns of the units, subjecting them to extreme climate and temperature conditions, including sustained subzero conditions, before deciding they were extremely rugged and reliable. He told me the fans appeared not to be a problem despite their apparent vulnerability. Hope those promises are fulfilled over time.
I am looking into how to set up an account for the portal mentioned above in order to have real time access to the QC units' availability. Apparently there is a fair amount of data available, including current amp and voltage output, if we can just get to it.
EDIT: Just called AeroVironment/EVSolutions support. Told by an engineer who sounded like he was close to the project that this initiative is in progress and nearing completion, so that real-time access should be available before too long. He did NOT, however, have any knowledge regarding plans to allow Nissan QC users to have fobs or RFID cards of their own. If anyone wants to dig further into this, AV/EVSolutions can be reached at 888-833-2148.