Dealership Charge Station Availability & Pacific Nissan

Will dealerships let cars not purchased at their dealership charge up as a courtesy? I just happen to have lunch today at a restaurant next door to a Nissan Dealer, (noticed they had their charge docks installed) but not one I have my car ordered with. I would like to know if I would have access to it when using my Leaf. Could one of the dealers comment? I would think Nissan Corp would encourage dealerships to make them available to all Leaf owners.

Maybe they will let you use it if you promise to get all your oil changes and filters there!
:lol:

I be leave Nissan is requiring at least 1 public charger be available 24/7

Gonewild said:

I be leave Nissan is requiring at least 1 public charger be available 24/7

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Free?

I don't know about 24/7... most dealerships are roped off (chains, parked cars, etc) at night.

All Nissan Leaf dealers are required to have at least two charging stations available for public use:

Publicly available charging stations. Stores have to commit two of them to be available to the public and out in the parking area; two more are required for back-of-shop.

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[source]

That makes sense. Public use, during business hours.

Mossy Nissan in Kearny Mesa (San Diego, CA) has them on the wall behind customer parking. Since there are very few customer parking spaces, I wonder if they will actually be reachable for charging, or occupied. (They are not reserved for EV parking only.)

Why would it be free? Electricity has a cost. As does gasoline.

Someone is going to make a bunch of money creating the machine that allows you to use your credit card to hook your Leaf up to a public charger. No other business model makes any sense at all.

There is also the question of time limits. Why should you be able to "hog" a scarce public charger? I don't think you should. Get an hour's worth of juice and go to the end of the line, if you ask me. These cars are limited in their range, and you should not expect to be able to drive them across country -- hopscotching from one dealership to another.

BlueSL said:

These cars are limited in their range, and you should not expect to be able to drive them across country -- hopscotching from one dealership to another.

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Now that would be a great adventure for someone with the time
Getting cross country on free electric

BlueSL said:

Why would it be free? Electricity has a cost. As does gasoline.

Someone is going to make a bunch of money creating the machine that allows you to use your credit card to hook your Leaf up to a public charger. No other business model makes any sense at all.

There is also the question of time limits. Why should you be able to "hog" a scarce public charger? I don't think you should. Get an hour's worth of juice and go to the end of the line, if you ask me. These cars are limited in their range, and you should not expect to be able to drive them across country -- hopscotching from one dealership to another.

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Free from Nissan is to help with sales and support of there cars.

Free in public is for ALL EV project cars because of Gov supported tax dollars to collect data on usage.


This maybe go the way WIFI did remember in the beginning every coffee shops and hotels charged for there use. And now people book hotels that offer free WIFI.

So more and more WIFI was free.

I see movie house and malls offering it to get you to come here instead of mall B

BlueSL said:

Why would it be free? Electricity has a cost. As does gasoline.

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Don't forget that there are laws on the books which essentially say that only public utilities can sell electricity. A company like ChargePoint, for which this is their primary business, can probably structure themselves so this works. RV parks and parking garages can cover the electricity costs under space rental. But I don't think there is much a dealer could do.

planet4ever said:

A company like ChargePoint, for which this is their primary business, can probably structure themselves so this works.

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Yep, they'll charge for "time" connected, or a basic flat-rate for plugging in. Completely legal as long as they have the permission of the parking spot owner.

Don't forget, ...
CA PUC already made an exception.
You do not need to be a PU to sell e-fuel for charging of vehicles.

Tucson, AZ - Thoroughbred Nissan, 22nd St.

I stopped at my PD today to see their chargers. They have six level 2 chargers. There are two in the front for LEAF owners to charge when needed or when visiting the dealership. They also have two chargers in the back part of the building and two more in the service department. That's a lot of chargers!!

MaryC said:

Will dealerships let cars not purchased at their dealership charge up as a courtesy? I just happen to have lunch today at a restaurant next door to a Nissan Dealer, (noticed they had their charge docks installed) but not one I have my car ordered with. I would like to know if I would have access to it when using my Leaf. Could one of the dealers comment? I would think Nissan Corp would encourage dealerships to make them available to all Leaf owners.

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Mary, to answer your question directly - yes... dealers will let you plug in and charge even if you didn't buy your car there. Business hours only. Even if available after hours, most will likely turn off the breaker to the equipment. If you wish to confirm, you could always call the dealership and ask.

I drove down from Castaic to Woodland Hills to visit my accountant. Keyes Nissan is right across the street. I pulled in, they took one of the Z's out that parking spot and let me charge for 2 hours. I did not buy from them but they were courteous and friendly. I went in and thanked them before leaving.

Puyallup Nissan (Puyallup, WA) told me they had a leaf come in (from out of town) that was loaned to a friend of the owner that lived locally. Since he had no charger at home they let him hook up and charge, and they returned to pick up the Leaf in the morning. They had no problems with this. They have also stated to me several times that I will be able to pop in anytime for a top off.

They have spent about $60,000 (so I was told) on chargers spread around the property, some of which are accessable 24/7.

Interestingly enough, I just took part in a market research study. It appears that Chevy is researching this as we speak. See my post:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=3095

Well today I came back to town after a delayed flight and hours of travel. I wanted to stop by a Nissan dealer and charge for 1 hour just to be confident I could get home. I have driven to the airport and back before, but on the way I gave 2 other people a ride so I had more weight and used more power.

I called the dealer and asked about the location of the charger. But when I arrived, long story short, Pacific Nissan would not let me charge. The manager explained to me that "not anyone" can charge. Let's just say I was treated poorly when I mentioned that since we are early adopters we were told until the ecotality charging went in we were allowed to do this. The manager basically told me that since I bought my car at a different dealer, I should just "take yourself" over to them and let them pay. I even offered to pay $10 to charge. nope. I received a lecture about how he was a for profit company.

When I arrived at the Clairemont Mesa Mossy Nissan with less than 10 miles left - completely different story. I was treated well by their GM Leon and had people offering me water and making sure I was happy with the car. They were happy to see someone come in and take advantage of the service. How can the treatment be so different? Is it simply because it was La Jolla and I wasn't dressed well enough?

Because I had to go so far out of my way, I will need to charge for 3 hours before I can go home. After my more than 12 hour travel day, this is as you can imagine not what I wanted to be doing right now. I would rather be seeing my spouse and kid.

Kelangst said:

But when I arrived, long story short, Pacific Nissan would not let me charge. ... I would rather be seeing my spouse and kid.

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Sorry to hear about your extra delay! On the bright side, aren't you glad you chose Mossy. Can you imagine having to deal with those people on a long term basis? As a test we need someone who bought from Pacific or Fontana to go ask Mossy for a charge, but I bet Leon is going to act more like an EV Ambassador and say "yes of course" and offer you coffee while you wait.

Since the EV Project is so far behind schedule, and charging infrastructure is crucial to the success or failure of the Leaf, I think Nissan should do whatever it takes to make sure that everyone can charge at every Nissan dealer. That might include some transfer payments if it turns out that many cars were bought at dealerships which are not very convenient for trip recharging while other dealerships conveniently located (as I think is Pacific) haven't sold very many. And it needs to include revoking a dealer's certification to sell Leafs at all if they don't cooperate.