LeftieBiker wrote:jlsoaz wrote:LeftieBiker wrote: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