jlsoaz
Well-known member
Essentially, I'd like to suggest that Nissan make it easier for me periodically to park my Leaf at a rental agency and efficiently (minimum of time and money) drive out with a Nissan rental, trusting that my Leaf would be parked for a few hours or days without any problems, and allowed Level I or II charging, as possible.
Such an arrangement would allow me to benefit in that:
- I could get rid of my gasoline burner that I own and have to tend to for maintenance and insurance.
- It would allow for "hybrid trips" (where I go, say, to the airport rental in my EV, and then continue on in a gasoline burner). Such trips would be slower than a pure gasoline trip, but would be much faster than a laborious lengthy multi-charging trip.
- I could perhaps use a highly efficient Nissan non-pluggable hybrid.
- If things are arranged in a smart way with Nissan, I might be able to avoid the recurring hassle and cost of rental-agency insurance and other issues, where they repeatedly scare me into buying more insurance. Since Nissan knows that I pay for insurance on my Leaf, this could be applied to my airport rental without the usual scare tactics, particularly if it's by mutually-agreed arrangement between Nissan and a rental agency.
This might benefit Nissan in that
- If the rental is a Nissan,
- it might help a few Leaf lessees and owners spend less on having to maintain a second car.
- it would increase the number of "Nissan miles" traveled by some of us.
- it might be a new and perhaps better, and efficient, way for some of us to deal with range issues on inter-city travel.
I guess this could all be done through Nissan dealerships instead of (say) airport-based rental agencies. There are pros and cons to this including a con that rental agencies may be better equipped efficiently to handle and process the needs of folks driving in at all hours and needing to do a quick car-swap. (I guess rather than battery swapping, this is about car-swapping).
This is a suggestion that I guess falls under the heading of "how Nissan could make more money from me". Nissan or this group may already have dealt with the topic and be ahead of me, but I searched for a few minutes in the group and don't see anything, so I am starting the topic. (A search on the word "rental" for example, seems to bring up threads pertaining to renting out of Nissan Leafs).
I'm not entirely sure how to frame this suggestion since it could be handled in other ways that have little to do with Nissan. For example, a different way to approach this idea might be to suggest it to Hertz or Avis or the like and say: "I suggest that you offer a special deal for EV drivers that if they pull into one of your agencies with their EV seeking a gasoline rental, you'll offer them a reasonable deal on a vehicle rental, not give them a raw deal on insurance and other hassles, and have their vehicle recharged and in a covered lot for them when they get back". I doubt they'd go for not giving EV drivers a raw deal on insurance and other rental costs, but overall maybe one or more of them might at least go for offering a formalized deal.
If this idea were to be taken up by rental agencies, then the focus I guess would shift away from renting Nissan gasoline-burners, though considering the demographic they might want to focus on offering highly-efficient gasoline burners (including Chevy Volt, Nissan and Toyota Hybrids, etc.) They could also offer I guess Nissan Leafs and other EVs for rent if a driver for their own reasons wanted to avoid waiting for a recharge and simply wanted to use the rental agency as an efficient EV car-swap for a longer trip. This seems a bit much as we are transitioning to more and more deployment of Quick-charge stations where the speed of quick-charging is better than the speed of going through a rental agency process, but many of us still have no access to quick-charging along our routes.
I'd be surprised if some Leaf drivers hadn't informally gone ahead and enacted this simply by using local rental agencies (perhaps talking to them about charging while away) or by arrangement with Nissan dealerships, but I'm suggesting that
A) Nissan might look into it
B) Rental agencies might look into formalizing it.
Such an arrangement would allow me to benefit in that:
- I could get rid of my gasoline burner that I own and have to tend to for maintenance and insurance.
- It would allow for "hybrid trips" (where I go, say, to the airport rental in my EV, and then continue on in a gasoline burner). Such trips would be slower than a pure gasoline trip, but would be much faster than a laborious lengthy multi-charging trip.
- I could perhaps use a highly efficient Nissan non-pluggable hybrid.
- If things are arranged in a smart way with Nissan, I might be able to avoid the recurring hassle and cost of rental-agency insurance and other issues, where they repeatedly scare me into buying more insurance. Since Nissan knows that I pay for insurance on my Leaf, this could be applied to my airport rental without the usual scare tactics, particularly if it's by mutually-agreed arrangement between Nissan and a rental agency.
This might benefit Nissan in that
- If the rental is a Nissan,
- it might help a few Leaf lessees and owners spend less on having to maintain a second car.
- it would increase the number of "Nissan miles" traveled by some of us.
- it might be a new and perhaps better, and efficient, way for some of us to deal with range issues on inter-city travel.
I guess this could all be done through Nissan dealerships instead of (say) airport-based rental agencies. There are pros and cons to this including a con that rental agencies may be better equipped efficiently to handle and process the needs of folks driving in at all hours and needing to do a quick car-swap. (I guess rather than battery swapping, this is about car-swapping).
This is a suggestion that I guess falls under the heading of "how Nissan could make more money from me". Nissan or this group may already have dealt with the topic and be ahead of me, but I searched for a few minutes in the group and don't see anything, so I am starting the topic. (A search on the word "rental" for example, seems to bring up threads pertaining to renting out of Nissan Leafs).
I'm not entirely sure how to frame this suggestion since it could be handled in other ways that have little to do with Nissan. For example, a different way to approach this idea might be to suggest it to Hertz or Avis or the like and say: "I suggest that you offer a special deal for EV drivers that if they pull into one of your agencies with their EV seeking a gasoline rental, you'll offer them a reasonable deal on a vehicle rental, not give them a raw deal on insurance and other hassles, and have their vehicle recharged and in a covered lot for them when they get back". I doubt they'd go for not giving EV drivers a raw deal on insurance and other rental costs, but overall maybe one or more of them might at least go for offering a formalized deal.
If this idea were to be taken up by rental agencies, then the focus I guess would shift away from renting Nissan gasoline-burners, though considering the demographic they might want to focus on offering highly-efficient gasoline burners (including Chevy Volt, Nissan and Toyota Hybrids, etc.) They could also offer I guess Nissan Leafs and other EVs for rent if a driver for their own reasons wanted to avoid waiting for a recharge and simply wanted to use the rental agency as an efficient EV car-swap for a longer trip. This seems a bit much as we are transitioning to more and more deployment of Quick-charge stations where the speed of quick-charging is better than the speed of going through a rental agency process, but many of us still have no access to quick-charging along our routes.
I'd be surprised if some Leaf drivers hadn't informally gone ahead and enacted this simply by using local rental agencies (perhaps talking to them about charging while away) or by arrangement with Nissan dealerships, but I'm suggesting that
A) Nissan might look into it
B) Rental agencies might look into formalizing it.