Can you apply for Ecotality EV Project after buying a Leaf?

[Volusiano]

There are a couple of orphan Leafs at a local dealership and my brother is thinking about getting one of them. However, it's not sure what the rule is for applying for a free Blink station after buying a Leaf. Are you still eligible to apply after you already bought a Leaf? The only process I'm familiar with is to apply while having a reserved spot on the waiting list. Then if you're approved, after your order, they will contact you about installing it a few weeks before your scheduled delivery.

Also if you're approved, you automatically get the "e" trim (as in SL-e) so that the car comes with the $700 Quick Charge option for free. In the case you buy an orphan Leaf that has the Quick Charge option, you'd have to shell out $700 to pay for that option. Is there a way to recover this cost if you qualify and get approved for a free Blink at home?

[TomT]

The short answer is , yes, you can apply for the EV Project after the fact. However, if you have already taken delivery of the vehicle and paid for the QC port, it may be problematic to get that amount refunded if you are later accepted in to the EV Project... That is something you would have to explore directly with Nissan.

There are a couple of orphan Leafs at a local dealership and my brother is thinking about getting one of them. However, it's not sure what the rule is for applying for a free Blink station after buying a Leaf. Are you still eligible to apply after you already bought a Leaf? The only process I'm familiar with is to apply while having a Leaf reserved. Then if you're approved, after your order, they will contact you about installing it a few weeks before your scheduled delivery.

Also if you approved, you automatically get the "e" trim (as in SL-e) so that the car comes with the $700 Quick Charge option for free. In the case you buy an orphan Leaf that has the Quick Charge option, you'd have to shell out $700 to pay for that option. Is there a way to recover this cost if you qualify and get approved for a free Blink at home?

[Andy]

Nissan did not allow me to apply for the EV project when it launched in the Bay Area, which was a few weeks after I took delivery. The only reason given was that I had already taken delivery. This process may of course not be consistent.

[TomT]

Once you have the vehicle, you can bypass Nissan and apply directly to the EV Project if you wish. I know of one in Los Angeles (not on this forum) that did just that and was accepted. They did not get a refund on the QC port they had paid for, however.

Nissan did not allow me to apply for the EV project when it launched in the Bay Area, which was a few weeks after I took delivery. The only reason given was that I had already taken delivery. This process may of course not be consistent.

[Volusiano]

What if somebody reserves a LEAF, applies and gets approved for the EV project, then found an orphan car at a local dealership and decides to buy that orphan car instead of waiting to order their own? Do you know of anybody in that situation where the $700 QC option is waived since they're already approved for the EV project?

[TNleaf]

What if somebody reserves a LEAF, applies and gets approved for the EV project, then found an orphan car at a local dealership and decides to buy that orphan car instead of waiting to order their own? Do you know of anybody in that situation where the $700 QC option is waived since they're already approved for the EV project?

You'd have to work that out with the dealer. I am in the EV project, and my dealer contacted me about an SL-e orphan he had and asked if I would be interested in purchasing it. He was asking MSRP, so I turned it down, but again, you'd probably have to work that out with the dealer.

[Volusiano]

What if somebody reserves a LEAF, applies and gets approved for the EV project, then found an orphan car at a local dealership and decides to buy that orphan car instead of waiting to order their own? Do you know of anybody in that situation where the $700 QC option is waived since they're already approved for the EV project?

You'd have to work that out with the dealer. I am in the EV project, and my dealer contacted me about an SL-e orphan he had and asked if I would be interested in purchasing it. He was asking MSRP, so I turned it down, but again, you'd probably have to work that out with the dealer.

I assume that when you said "my dealer", that means you already placed an order with your dealer, and I assume that you also already got some kind of discount off MSRP, and that the SL-e came with the $700 QC option for free because you're approved for the EV project.

So when you said your dealer was asking for MSRP on the orphan SL-e, did he also ask that you pay the $700 MSRP for the QC option? Or did he ask you to pay MSRP but w/o having to pay the $700 MSRP for the QC option?

[TNleaf]

I assume that when you said "my dealer", that means you already placed an order with your dealer, and I assume that you also already got some kind of discount off MSRP, and that the SL-e came with the $700 QC option for free because you're approved for the EV project.

You're correct; I have placed an order with "my dealer" and did get approved for the EV project. In fact, my DB was hosed up for several weeks after I got approved, so initially my dealer quoted me for an SL + QC which included the extra $700. However, when Nissan got my DB fixed and properly showed that I ordered an SL-e, my dealer took the $700 off the quote to match the fact that I ordered an SL-e and it comes with QC port.

So when you said your dealer was asking for MSRP on the orphan SL-e, did he also ask that you pay the $700 MSRP for the QC option? Or did he ask you to pay MSRP but w/o having to pay the $700 MSRP for the QC option?

So the orphan was an SL-e with the ECO-package (list $260) and splash guards ($140). He was asking MSRP of $34,820 which he got from the following:

SL-e list -- 33,720
ECO-package-- 260
Spash guards-- 140
Total: 34,120

The difference of $700 I assumed to be the QC port list price. Although, now that I think about it, could the $700 be destination fees? (I thought destination was $850 so it still doesn't add up).

However, if you look at the List/Invoice prices, the MSRP on a SL-e with nothing added should be the same price as an SL. Which leads me back to my initial point of "it depends on the dealer."

Ps. Don't get me wrong, I think my dealer is great, and I'm glad that he called me to let me know he had an orphan, but I wasn't willing to pay the $2900 difference in my quote for an orphan to save myself 1-2 months of waiting (added that the orphan was Black--my second choice, and I didn't want the eco-package). My dealer didn't pressure me, so again, I've been more than pleased with him so far and appreciated the call.

[Volusiano]

My understanding is the $33,720 is the MSRP for the Nissan SL without the $700 QC option. So if you're getting an SL-e for the MSRP price of $33,720, that means that you're not paying for the $700 QC option, and it's already included as the "-e" trim for the SL for free.

And yes, they're also going to add the $820 destination charge on top of this MSRP plus all the accessory options.

I fully agree that if you've already ordered and are only a couple of months away from getting your discounted Leaf, it makes no sense in paying full MSRP for an orphan one.

But it looks like the dealer wasn't going to charge you the $700 QC option if he still quoted you $33,720 MSRP for the SL-e. So that answers my question.

[TNleaf]

I got my invoice/list prices from the following;

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1022

And I could have done better at explaining, he only gave me the price of $34,820 and told me what options the orphan had. I did the math, and unless he only charged $700 for destination, it looks like he WAS asking for $700 on top of the MSRP (even though it WAS an SL-e).

He was asking MSRP of $34,820 which he got from the following:

SL-e list -- 33,720
ECO-package-- 260
Spash guards-- 140
Total: 34,120

So to recap, my dealer called me, told me he had an orphan Leaf. I asked the model, options and price, to which he came back with: Only difference in my order and the orphan are the color, ECO-package and splash guards. Which if you look at my math above, comes out with a $700 difference... the exact price of the QC port. The only outlying factor would have been the destination charge... which to my understanding is $850. Sorry if I've made any of that more confusing than it needs to be. You can PM me if you had any more questions.