Dealer Charging Stations

[DaveinOlyWA]

agreed. My sister in law's brother in law owns 3 MacDonalds in the Portland OR area and Mac Corp keeps a VERY VERY tight reign on all franchises. He does have some options but in many areas he does not.

I dont see any reason why Manufacturers cannot exercise the same control over their franchises. When i worked for a Ford dealership briefly we were going thru EV certification and they had some pretty strict rules (and mandatory costs) for maintaining the certification

 

[dgpcolorado]

This complete thread is disappointing. I live in Franklin, TN home of the "mothership." Nissan HQ keeps a DC charger and multiple level 2 chargers available free of charge 24/7. As well, they keep a keen eye on the dealership just down the road. As a result, all Middle Tennessee dealerships are very accommadating with their chargers. Nissan has made a concerted effort to have level 2 chargers installed at their dealerships everywhere. They need to make a concerted effort to ensure that their respective dealers provide the same level of customer support that is being provided at HQ's.

I presume that you were referring to dealers in Tennessee. But I would like to point out that there are plenty of Nissan dealers in areas away from big cities that aren't "LEAF certified" and don't have charge stations of any kind. In some areas of the country, LEAF certified Nissan dealers are quite rare.

 

[mihird]

Experience at Dublin Nissan - Dublin CA

I had to stop by the dealership, just before 8.00pm to get a quick 10 min. emergency charge on my 2013 Leaf as it was running out of range to reach home.

Being a first year winter Leaf owner, I am learning that the leaf suffers from significant battery capacity loss in cold weather. That is what made my car fall short of its ability to reach home that particularly cold day - raising the need for an emergency charge.

I was certainly not happy with the experience I got from the dealership where a salesman refused to unplug a fully charged new car ready for delivery to help me get a 10 minute emergency charge. "keeping a topped up new car ready for delivery plugged was to get higher priority over a car in distress on its ability to reach home".

I followed up with Nissan USA & got to know that Nissan does not require its dealerships to provide access to its EVSE stations although they are invariably put upfront as a marketing ploy, at the same time it does not prevent dealerships from using such language in their sales pitch of the Leaf. That explains what made me pull into the dealership for an emergency charge. To make matters more confusing to the Leaf owner, the car's Carwings system lists Nissan dealerships as an available charge station but the reality is, it is up to the dealerships's desecration to help in such a situation, so Carwings is in a way misleading the owner.

Never going to a dealership again for an emergency charge. We all leaf owners need to have our voices heard at Nissan headquarters.

What is the point in putting dealer locations in Carwings as charge stations if there is no guarantee of them being available & Nissan has no policy in place to require dealerships to make them available?

This is totally such an EV unfriendly practice that the dealerships are engaging in...

 

[planet4ever]

What is the point in putting dealer locations in Carwings as charge stations if there is no guarantee of them being available & Nissan has no policy in place to require dealerships to make them available?

Sorry about your experience, and we hear you loud and clear. We all learn very quickly not to depend on the LEAF's navigation system for finding charging stations. Most of us think the best source is PlugShare. It shows half a dozen other L2 charging stations along I-580 within a mile of the dealer. And (assuming you don't have the base-level S model without the port) a QuickCharge station a bit further east at the El Charro Rd. exit.

By the way, you might not have needed to stop at all. There really is more range available at the bottom end than many people think. After you get the first "Low Battery Warning" you should be able to stretch your remaining range to at least 15 miles by getting off the freeway and taking city streets. Worst case, turn off the heater and shiver for a bit.

Ray

 

[mihird]

Sorry about your experience, and we hear you loud and clear. We all learn very quickly not to depend on the LEAF's navigation system for finding charging stations. Most of us think the best source is PlugShare. It shows half a dozen other L2 charging stations along I-580 within a mile of the dealer. And (assuming you don't have the base-level S model without the port) a QuickCharge station a bit further east at the El Charro Rd. exit.

By the way, you might not have needed to stop at all. There really is more range available at the bottom end than many people think. After you get the first "Low Battery Warning" you should be able to stretch your remaining range to at least 15 miles by getting off the freeway and taking city streets. Worst case, turn off the heater and shiver for a bit.

Ray

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, I am also now learning not to rely on Carwings. That said, I am going to continue to get my voice heard at Nissan USA. I filed a formal complaint with Nissan & I was given a case no. to follow up on with regards to this incident at the dealership.

Yes, I have a 2013 SV so it has the 6.6 KWh charger on board & ironically, I have leased it from that very same Dublin Nissan dealership.

I live just a mile away from the Paragon outlet malls. I did not know, they now have a CHAdeMO and level 2 chargers available. Now that you mention, I see them on Plugshare. Thanks for enlightening me.

Yes, I am certainly not approaching another Nissan dealership ever for an emergency charge situation, but I think, Nissan has fell short on its promise to support this car. Having readily available emergency charging access at its dealership network is the least amount of support Nissan can assure on a car that can easily get challenged on its range.

What is the point in optioning in Carwings, if it's data is not to be relied upon? I admire Nissan for taking such a bold step and building such a nice & affordable EV, but this dealership arrangement where it's own dealership network becomes a set of uninviting charge stations (that too just for a $1-$2 emergency charge) is no way helping them with getting repeat customers or lessees.

 

[RonDawg]

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, I am also now learning not to rely on Carwings. That said, I am going to continue to get my voice heard at Nissan USA. I filed a formal complaint with Nissan & I was given a case no. to follow up on with regards to this incident at the dealership.

Yes, I have a 2013 SV so it has the 6.6 KWh charger on board & ironically, I have leased it from that very same Dublin Nissan dealership.

I live just a mile away from the Paragon outlet malls. I did not know, they now have a CHAdeMO and level 2 chargers available. Now that you mention, I see them on Plugshare. Thanks for enlightening me.

Yes, I am certainly not approaching another Nissan dealership ever for an emergency charge situation, but I think, Nissan has fell short on its promise to support this car. Having readily available emergency charging access at its dealership network is the least amount of support Nissan can assure on a car that can easily get challenged on its range.

What is the point in optioning in Carwings, if it's data is not to be relied upon? I admire Nissan for taking such a bold step and building such a nice & affordable EV, but this dealership arrangement where it's own dealership network becomes a set of uninviting charge stations (that too just for a $1-$2 emergency charge) is no way helping them with getting repeat customers or lessees.

Unfortunately while they will go out of their way to have you buy/lease a car from them, some dealers aren't as service-oriented when it comes time for you to need something.

However, not all Nissan dealers are as difficult to work with as you experienced with Dublin. I don't know about the Bay Area (the locals up there can give you leads) but many Nissan dealers are happy to let others charge at their dealership, even sometimes if the car is not a Leaf. Sometimes this can be a bad thing though, as people take advantage of the dealership's generosity and cause long waits for an available EVSE especially the QC's.

PlugShare will often have notations about charging station availability, or lack thereof.

 

[RonDawg]

BTW have you gotten your online survey from Nissan yet? If not, you should be getting it soon, within the first few months of ownership.

One of the questions they will ask you is if you plan to get your car serviced at the same dealership where you got it. If you answer no (and I suspect you would), the survey will ask you why. This is your chance to let them know why.

In my case, I answered no simply because the dealer is too far from my home to get there and back on a single charge, and it would have to be charging for 8 hours in order to have enough juice to make it back. My car does not have a QC port.

The dealership also gets the results of this survey and apparently getting 100% on all marks is very important to them, considering how much they beg you to give them that score.

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

You can also give them a bad review on http://www.dealerrater.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

To be treated like that at the very place you got the car is disgraceful.

 

[Woosie]

At the opposite end of the spectrum is Carson Nissan in SoCal, where, when I arrive at the L3 charger, they recognize and come out with the key to unlock that charger. There are four L2 chargers available to, free to Leaf owners and owners of other makes.

 

[mihird]

At the opposite end of the spectrum is Carson Nissan in SoCal, where, when I arrive at the L3 charger, they recognize and come out with the key to unlock that charger. There are four L2 chargers available to, free to Leaf owners and owners of other makes.

That is true with Dublin Nissan too. I have seen them welcome Leaf chargers on several other occasions. The trouble starts when an emergency charge situation co-incides with something seemingly more important to a dealer, like a new vehicle delivery.

The fault does not entirely lie with the dealer either. Nissan does not require them to provide such access, but they are free to use such speech as a marketing language at their desecration. Dealers want to be included in Carwings because they want people driving up to the dealerships (more for sales than service) & Nissan wants to show their dealership network as well as a place to readily get service for the vehicle.

The problem is this whole arrangement, as I said "results in the dealership network becoming an uninviting & unreliable" charging network.

Another thing, I discovered is that "Service" at Dublin Nissan knows little about these charging stations & seem to play no part in it. The stations are strictly owned & operated by "Sales". This tells me, these are strictly sales tools & not service tools. Again, this point could have been clearly explained at the time of purchase, that the EVSE stations are available for service to existing customers only when sales is not in need of them & if, as it seems is the case at all dealerships, there should be an option to turn off dealership stations on Carwings because they are really not emergency access points.

This whole thing doesn't have to be this complicated. If Nissan can assure that 1 or 2 EVSE charging stations will be available at each Leaf certified dealership with 24x7 access in Service for no more than 30 min. top up emergency charge for on road leaf cars & their in-use status will reflect in Carwings, that will make everyone's life easier.

Nissan can now transparently let the sales own their EVSE stations for marketing & delivery purposes.
Nissan can clearly tell its leaf owners that emergency charging access is assured at all dealerships 24x7, but is limited to 30 mins. of charging at a time.

Just as chargepoint & similar charging networks are able to manage all this so seamlessly, it can't be that difficult for Nissan who invented the entire Carwings telematics system for this car to be able to do it.

Else, Nissan can be clear & transparent about it that dealership network is not available for emergency charging - and that makes it clear to the owner from day one not to approach them.

They want people coming in & charge only if it is of any help to sales - it is not a service commitment - why can't they just clarify this upfront in simple terms. Why does every leaf owner have to go through a bad experience once to discover this simple fact.

 

[DaveEV]

This whole thing doesn't have to be this complicated. If Nissan can assure that 1 or 2 EVSE charging stations will be available at each Leaf certified dealership with 24x7 access in Service for no more than 30 min. top up emergency charge for on road leaf cars & their in-use status will reflect in Carwings, that will make everyone's life easier.

These stations don't even need to be free. Put in Chargepoints or something if the dealership is worried about leachers. As you say, the #1 priority is knowing that one will be able to charge.

An unreliable charging network is nearly as bad as an non-existent charging network.

 

[kubel]

I think we need to understand the difference between all these charging stations classifications. Just because a charging station is open to the general public and is free doesn't make it a public charging station. And just because a charging station is paid for by public funds, doesn't mean they won't charge you for it. And just because a charging station is listed on a network doesn't mean it's available for public consumption (it may be only for customers, employees, etc...).

Another problem is technology growth. The point at which the infrastructure for "public charging" is finally large enough and reliable enough will be the point in time in which battery technology makes these public charging stations much less useful. I don't think many of these public stations will be upgraded or refurbished when they reach end of life.

I look at public charging stations like I do really nasty public restrooms. I simply don't rely on them. I would much rather take care of that sort of business at home, or maybe at work.

 

[Berlino]

I look at public charging stations like I do really nasty public restrooms. I simply don't rely on them. I would much rather take care of that sort of business at home, or maybe at work.

Interesting analogy.

However, I can pretty much always drive more than two hours without having to visit a restroom, but can't say as much for a charging station.

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

I look at public charging stations like I do really nasty public restrooms. I simply don't rely on them. I would much rather take care of that sort of business at home, or maybe at work.

Interesting analogy.

However, I can pretty much always drive more than two hours without having to visit a restroom, but can't say as much for a charging station.

Bladder degradation, it's only a matter of time.

 

[Turnover]

Bladder degradation, it's only a matter of time.[/quote]


Yep we are all composting after age 30... :?

 

[derkraut]

Bladder degradation, it's only a matter of time.

Yep we are all composting after age 30... :?[/quote]
At my age, my bladder capacity is down to LBW (low bladder warning) after about an hour or so; also, a cold "brewsky" degrades my bladder capacity like Phoenix summers degrade Leaf battery capacity. It's all downhill from here.

 

[mihird]

I think we need to understand the difference between all these charging stations classifications. Just because a charging station is open to the general public and is free doesn't make it a public charging station. And just because a charging station is paid for by public funds, doesn't mean they won't charge you for it. And just because a charging station is listed on a network doesn't mean it's available for public consumption (it may be only for customers, employees, etc...).

Another problem is technology growth. The point at which the infrastructure for "public charging" is finally large enough and reliable enough will be the point in time in which battery technology makes these public charging stations much less useful. I don't think many of these public stations will be upgraded or refurbished when they reach end of life.

I look at public charging stations like I do really nasty public restrooms. I simply don't rely on them. I would much rather take care of that sort of business at home, or maybe at work.

Irrespective of how much we like or dislike public restrooms, life would be unlivable without them. Same goes with charging stations.

As someone pointed, an unreliable charging network is as good as an unavailable charging network. No matter how much the technology grows, public charging stations will remain a necessity to keep EVs on the road.

 

[edatoakrun]

...Irrespective of how much we like or dislike public restrooms, life would be unlivable without them. Same goes with charging stations...

If the American public urinal infrastructure had the same capabilities as the public charging infrastructure:

There would be thousands of "L2 urinals" haphazardly scattered around parking lots, but these would often be blocked by other guys who didn't need to pee, but just liked standing in front of them.

And when you finally found an unoccupied "L2 urinal" it would only be designed to let you pee at the rate of ~ a tablespoon per hour.

Or you could search for one of the very few "DC urinals" that would allow you to empty your bladder as fast as you'd like.

But these would usually be located miles out of your way, and either be broken when you get there, or if working, have a line of guys ahead of you, all trying to squeeze out the very last drop to get the most value out of their $5 payment...

 

[DNAinaGoodWay]

And the hospital refuses to give you a price for a bladder transplant.

I'm sorry, but this thread is just going down the tubes.