Problems Charging at Nissan Dealerships?

[SnaxMuppet]

It is different here in the UK. ALL Leaf dealers are required by Nissan to have a Level 3 charger and they are also obliged to allow any Leaf owners to charge.

There are currently 26 Leaf dealers here in the UK mainland (27 if you include Northern Ireland). This sounds good but they are only available when the dealer is open so it isn't as good as it needs to be.

Nissan UK have said publicly that they expect ALL UK Nissan dealers to be Leaf dealers by 2013 and for them all to have L3 chargers. Still not ideal as they will still only be available when the dealer is open but it would then mean that we have some kind of National L3 charging network in business hours.

I imagine that charging at dealers will become less and less necessary as publicly available chargers get installed. Eventually we will only need to charge at dealers when getting our cars serviced or repaired. It will take a few years but I am convinced it will happen.

 

[91040]

The dealers should charge a fee for charging our cars.
1) It would limit usage to those that need it.
2) It would provide them a revenue stream to offset the dearth of revenue from service and repairs for the cars.

 

[Mark510]

Yesterday I stopped by a Nissan dealer to plug in. The sales manager saw me checking out the chargers and the cars that were parked there. He came out and quickly observed the license plate frame and realized I bought it from another dealer.

He said, "We installed these chargers thinking we would offer charging to people who bought their cars from our dealership..."

I interrupt, "Wow. That would be seriously un-cool."

I explained how there is limited infrastructure right now and that we need to cooperate to make this successful. We chatted a while. After he found out I had a business near by he was very nice, offering to move the car that was blocking the charger, offering me the wifi code, and starbucks coffee.

I guess we have to be reasonable and nice.

 

[TomT]

I'm glad it worked out but I find the whole "it's for our customers" mentality odd... The likelihood is that their customers will live nearby and thus rarely actually need to charge at the dealership from whom they purchased the vehicle since they will be charging at home or somewhere else further away.

He said, "We installed these chargers thinking we would offer charging to people who bought their cars from our dealership..."

 

[mwalsh]

... Every dealer that is listed on the Leaf nav is currently obliged to charge a Leaf at no cost. It is indeed our right as Leaf owners.

I sincerely hope you simply have a very dry sense of humor that I'm missing, because that is absolutely not true.

Sorry, but that's what Nissan has led me to believe. They have required all dealers that would sell the Leaf to install charging stations (am I right?). The idea is, to help sell the car they provide infrastructure. Besides, the nav screen lists these dealers as charging locations. So unless you have some information I don't, I'm not sure why you say this?

John is mostly correct. Each LEAF certified Nissan dealer was required to have no fewer than 3 charging stations - 1 for the service area and 2 FOR PUBLIC USE. The only point I dispute with John is the "at no cost" part, because I don't have any information to know whether or not that was stipulated in the certification agreement.

 

[NYLEAF]

What if you just take off your license plate frames? They can't possibly memorize all the Leafs they've sold, can they?

 

[davewill]

John is mostly correct. Each LEAF certified Nissan dealer was required to have no fewer than 3 charging stations - 1 for the service area and 2 FOR PUBLIC USE. The only point I dispute with John is the "at no cost" part, because I don't have any information to know whether or not that was stipulated in the certification agreement.

Except that people who have complained to Nissan have been told that Nissan is unable to compel dealers to allow charging. The truth is that Nissan failed to make public charging mandatory for LEAF certification, and some of the dealers have chosen not to allow it.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

the "real" problem is that Nissan failed to support the Leaf dealers. they should have taken on part of the cost of the Charger installation in exchange of allowing any and ALL EVs to charge there including iMEVs

i think that Mitsubishi and Nissan not partnering together to push the CH QC option by sharing is a big mistake

 

[EricH]

I'm glad it worked out but I find the whole "it's for our customers" mentality odd... The likelihood is that their customers will live nearby and thus rarely actually need to charge at the dealership from whom they purchased the vehicle since they will be charging at home or somewhere else further away.

He said, "We installed these chargers thinking we would offer charging to people who bought their cars from our dealership..."

Had I known that, I could have purchased from the most annoying Nissan dealer, about 60 miles from my house, located strategically on the way to someplace interesting (San Diego, etc.). Then, I could count on charging at my "home" dealership, 60 miles from my house, a few times per year.

Agree that my 'local' dealer is, geographically, wildly pointless as a charging station, unless I happened to be 'limping' home from that direction...

 

[LEAFer]

Go to your "favorite" charging spot(s) (dealer(s)) ... buy some "local" license frames in their parts department; don't forget the necessary screw driver and allocate an extra 3 minutes of your time :twisted:

 

[TomT]

I can see it now... Quick disconnect license plate frames with a box full of them from all the dealers around! Just put on the one for whichever dealer you wish to charge at before you drive in! :lol:

Go to your "favorite" charging spot(s) (dealer(s)) ... buy some "local" license frames in their parts department; don't forget the necessary screw driver and allocate an extra 3 minutes of your time :twisted:

 

[tps]

The dealers should charge a fee for charging our cars.
1) It would limit usage to those that need it.
2) It would provide them a revenue stream to offset the dearth of revenue from service and repairs for the cars.

They talked about that at the dealer I'll be buying my LEAF from. I think it's a fair proposition. I would think many LEAF owners would not be charging often at their local Nissan dealers, the ones they likely bought the cars from. I'd think it would be more likely to charge at a more distant Bissan dealer in order to make an occasional trip.

 

[NYLEAF]

The dealers should charge a fee for charging our cars.
1) It would limit usage to those that need it.
2) It would provide them a revenue stream to offset the dearth of revenue from service and repairs for the cars.

They talked about that at the dealer I'll be buying my LEAF from. I think it's a fair proposition. I would think many LEAF owners would not be charging often at their local Nissan dealers, the ones they likely bought the cars from. I'd think it would be more likely to charge at a more distant Bissan dealer in order to make an occasional trip.

You know, I just rented the GERTZ Bissan Keaf for a day...it just wasn't the same. :lol:

 

[etrans]

For any Nissan dealership to object to use of their charging station is .... insane. Nissan is currently the leader in this new and radically different technology. Given the state of the infrastructure they should be totally open to use by any Leaf owner, no matter where they purchased it. Nissan Corporate would be wise to require this and to instruct dealers to mark these spots "electric car charging only" and never allow any other car to block access.

Any new technology seems to threaten some people and being nice but insistent is the only way forward.

 

[hellraiser79]

I wish that was the way it is! however, the two nissan dealers near me still have their charging stations padlocked and unavailable to use. I even took pictures and emailed them to Nissan customer service after the dealer told customer service that they never lock their chargers. Somebody is lying and its not me!!

 

[jdc]

I went to Walnut Creek, CA Nissan dealer, 8am Sunday morning to find the chargers all locked up. Went to the gym, came back to the dealer at 10am when they opened and tried to charge, BUT the sales guys could not find the padlock key required to flip the breaker. I was down to two bars and thought I might not make it home. The sales manager, called around to find the key, then offered us his demo LEAF for the day until my car was charged up. We used it for two hours, drained it doing 80mph on 680 freeway, but returned it with a box of cookies. Sales guys were delighted someone brought them something.

 

[lpickup]

Nissan Corporate would be wise to require this and to instruct dealers to mark these spots "electric car charging only" and never allow any other car to block access.

Agreed. But some dealers (as reported by others) can't even seem to respect their handicapped parking spots.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

all this reminds me of Prohibition;

despite what most people think; Prohibition did not outlaw drinking alcohol, only its transport, storage and sale.

all this reminds me of that. Nissan dealers will sell you a car gladly but you cant use their chargers which were required by Nissan Corporate to allow you to sell the Leaf in the first place

 

[EricH]

Nissan Corporate would be wise to require this and to instruct dealers to mark these spots "electric car charging only" and never allow any other car to block access.

Agreed. But some dealers (as reported by others) can't even seem to respect their handicapped parking spots.

At this point, I bet 90% of propel who leased/owned an EV-1, Think, Honda, or other c.2000 EV has obtained a Leaf, or is waiting for alternatives (BMW, Tesla, et. al). So most Leaf purchasers will have little/no experience with public charging. Nissan should not only require dealers to charge all Leaf owners - not daily, but with some reasonable limit - but if Nissan sponsored a handful of QC stations then every dealer could add "You can drive from Santa Barbara to San Diego" to their sales pitch.

I fear the main problem with dealers is the Leaf violates their business model, in that it needs little but wiper blades -no oil changes, slow brake pad wear, no expensive dealer services. So they have a hard time offering free electrons when we need nothing but an annual battery check (for which Nissan probably doesn't pay the rates posted at the service counter).

 

[kentuckyleaf]

Our first trip after purchasing our Leaf was a 90 miles round trip to the inlaws. We picked up about 3 hours of L1 charging at the inlaws, and headed back home. About 10 miles from home, we stopped by the local Nissan dealer, Glenn Nissan in Lexington, KY, and the charging stations were powered off (Sunday afternoon, after business hours). We had enough "range" to make it home this time, but what if we were cutting it close, or the weather was different than we had planned? These are the only public chargers in Lexington, KY, and I think they should leave them on, even after hours. Sure, I could do a story on the local news (I work for a local television station), but auto dealers do business with television stations, lots of business! Glenn said they would gladly provide a charge during business hours, so this isn't a "refusal" to charge a Leaf purchased elsewhere, but it is a bad policy if you want to support EV sales. I don't think that anyone wants a "free" charge, I'll gladly pay a fee to rent a charger, I'd slip a $1 bill into the night service box for the 33 cents worth of electricity I used. If the guessometer says I have 5 miles of range, and I'm 10 miles from home, I'd like to have the option to stop and charge for 45 minutes, even if it is Sunday afternoon. I understand that it "might" not be legal to resell electricity, but is it illegal to rent an EVSE for an hour? Every business resells the electricity that they consume, it is part of the price we pay when we purchase anything and everything.

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