Please consider selling Leafs in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico

[LeftieBiker]

The best way to get that dealership to ask Nissan for Leaf certification is to approach the owners with a group of people who are all committed to buying or leasing a Leaf if they do. Have an additional list of those who are seriously considering buying or leasing a new Leaf.

[jlsoaz]

The best way to get that dealership to ask Nissan for Leaf certification is to approach the owners with a group of people who are all committed to buying or leasing a Leaf if they do. Have an additional list of those who are seriously considering buying or leasing a new Leaf.

Ok, well, I'll take your point under advisement. This isn't in the US and not only can't I go there readily, but I know very few people over there, nor how to speak the language. I do have one or two angles I can look at though, aside from asking Nissan to look into it. Also, I'm personally not interested in getting into another new Leaf, whether Leased or financed.

[LeftieBiker]

If you don't want to acquire a new Leaf, and don't personally know of other people there who do, why are you so interested in getting them to sell Leafs...? I'm puzzled.

[baustin]

I don't know how it works in Mexico, but in the USA none of the dealerships are owned by Nissan. The dealership has to initiate the process to Sell and Service the Leaf. There are Staffing and Training requirements they have to meet before being authorized to handle the Leaf. It is also possible that Nissan may not authorize any dealers to handle the Leaf in certain markets.

That all makes sense.

I don't know if this particular dealership has applied to Nissan, or indicated an interest, but at one time it seems to me I heard they had been interested. Whether that is correct or not, given the population growth that has taken place in that city, I do think it can't hurt for Nissan to explore if it might be a good location from which to sell Leafs.

Nissan doesn't own, and can't be involved with ownership of, the dealers. There's no point in them 'exploring' areas where the vehicles may be sold. If there is not a dealer that wants to expend the capital to be Nissan authorized, then Nissan vehicles are not sold there. That's pretty much all there is to it.

[jlsoaz]

If you don't want to acquire a new Leaf, and don't personally know of other people there who do, why are you so interested in getting them to sell Leafs...? I'm puzzled.

Advocacy is not always about people we personally know. I'd like to see Nissan do well with EVs in Mexico, and I'd like to see my friends in Nogales, Sonora have access to good new cars.

[jlsoaz]

Nissan doesn't own, and can't be involved with ownership of, the dealers. There's no point in them 'exploring' areas where the vehicles may be sold. If there is not a dealer that wants to expend the capital to be Nissan authorized, then Nissan vehicles are not sold there. That's pretty much all there is to it.

Hi -

Are you offering this as information that you have reason to believe is correct, about how things work in Mexico, where Nissan is the leader in light duty vehicle sales?

[LeftieBiker]

If you don't want to acquire a new Leaf, and don't personally know of other people there who do, why are you so interested in getting them to sell Leafs...? I'm puzzled.

Advocacy is not always about people we personally know. I'd like to see Nissan do well with EVs in Mexico, and I'd like to see my friends in Nogales, Sonora have access to good new cars.

As long as you have friends there who want a Leaf, that's fine. Just remember that it's hard to impose change - even positive change - entirely from the outside.

[jlsoaz]

If you don't want to acquire a new Leaf, and don't personally know of other people there who do, why are you so interested in getting them to sell Leafs...? I'm puzzled.

Advocacy is not always about people we personally know. I'd like to see Nissan do well with EVs in Mexico, and I'd like to see my friends in Nogales, Sonora have access to good new cars.

As long as you have friends there who want a Leaf, that's fine. Just remember that it's hard to impose change - even positive change - entirely from the outside.

It's not a bad point, but I've been at this since the 90s and am accustomed to guarding my stamina by assuming a low batting average for a lot of ideas. On this one, I'm not going to require of myself that I know people who want a Leaf here in town, though I'll take the point that it weakens the case. I will say if the dealership did start offering them, I wouldn't be surprised to end up having a number of conversations (including a few on the US side) as to pros/cons of buying. Not to be unappreciative of the various inputs, but this is the part of the forum notionally carved out for suggestions to Nissan, and in my mind that's my main focus. ... I think there's a possibility that it could be in their interest to consider selling the Leaf here. I get that other forum participants may comment on the suggestion, and they may make good points, and I'll take them if I see it that way, but that doesn't change that fundamentally they're not the main party I'm addressing.

My main reservation on this idea is that if Nissan did start offering Leafs at the dealership I would have to caution my friends against paying the depreciation on a new vehicle whose battery may not do well in our local climate. It's a very strong reservation actually and I almost wish I didn't start the thread because of it.

Background on this suggestion includes Nissan's leading role in Mexico and I've seen other towns where the Leaf is now for sale after some advocacy, though that was different in various ways. Also, as mentioned, it was my fallible impression awhile back the local dealership might be interested.

Also, a friend took me in her car for a brief drive there to take some pictures of some charge stations at a local hotel (the Mexican side got the stations before a single proper hard-wired station was installed on the US side, or even before a US hotel in town activated a single plug on plugshare). One of the points that really struck me was how awful the streets are, and maybe how that ties in to how few really good cars I see. It got me to wondering about the wisdom of driving a $80k Tesla to that hotel to use the stations, or the wisdom of taking a $40k MSRP EV on the streets there. My friend indicated they have some local words to describe what the streets do to cars there.

[edit]: Background also includes fairly strong population growth in that town over the last 10-20 years:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nogales,_Sonora

[LeftieBiker]

Do you want that second post, empty except for the quote, removed?

Not to try to discourage you, but there is a second point of information I need to pass along: Nissan rarely listens to requests these days, or if they do, they ignore them. This wasn't always true, as the 2013 "V1.2" Leaf incorporated several suggestions from this site and from their Leaf Advisory Group. Since then, however, we have little to no evidence that Nissan pays any attention at all to this site. (Well, maybe my long-ago request that the Recirculate mode be operative in the Floor + Defrost vent mode.) They once again have a so-called advisory group made up of Leaf drivers, but the second version of the group now constituted, has, rumor has it, only very minimal input into changes to the cars or to corporate policy. The best evidence of this is that, despite constant pleas from Leaf drivers in the US, there is still no variable or 80% charge limit option.

[baustin]

Nissan doesn't own, and can't be involved with ownership of, the dealers. There's no point in them 'exploring' areas where the vehicles may be sold. If there is not a dealer that wants to expend the capital to be Nissan authorized, then Nissan vehicles are not sold there. That's pretty much all there is to it.

Hi -

Are you offering this as information that you have reason to believe is correct, about how things work in Mexico, where Nissan is the leader in light duty vehicle sales?

That is how it is in the USA. Car manufacturers do not sell direct to consumers, except for Tesla. Many states in the USA require the dealership system, and do not allow car manufacturers to own or operate dealerships. My assumption is Mexico is similar, but I do not know. The staffing and training requirements to sell and service the Leaf are a Nissan corporate requirement. If a Nissan dealer does not sell and service the Leaf, they either are unable or unwilling to meet the necessary requirements, or Nissan does not want to sell the Leaf through that dealer.