I drive my Prime 50 miles to swim at the Y. There's a Nissan dealer a mile away. After talking to the service manager about my plan of plugging in, walking to the Y, doing my thing and coming back two hours later, he was open to the notion. He tried three or four different keys to open up the box to throw a switch, but none worked. Turns out they haven't used the charger for so long, nobody knows where the key is! I went on-line and saw three comments over the years from others who stopped by in a vain attempt to use the charger. Here's what they said: A LEAF EZ-Charge℠ App user Jul 9, 2017 11:36 AM Sunday and both are locked out. Dennis Aug 31, 2014 5:12 AM These are now off and locked, another clueless Nissan dealer. Musk is right, traditional dealers can't sell EVs. Chris Aug 18, 2013 11:43 AM Plugged in the volt walked to best buy for an hour returned to car to find somebody turned off the charger right after i left. Unfriendly to charge here on Sunday. Pissed off somebody turned the charger off. Dennis Apr 27, 2013 8:54 PM It looks like these chargers are finally being left unlocked. You may have to flip the lever to turn on the power,but they should be unlocked. There are two on the side of the building facing I 180 and one on the far rear corner. Andrew has always been helpful in making sure I could charge when I needed to, but the knowledge that I can charge here at any time makes my Leaf so much more useable. Thank you Alexander Nissan!! Feb 10, 2013 9:18 PM They keep their chargers turned off and locked. I have charged a few times when they were open after asking and having cars moved. It was never a problem to get a charge when they were open, but after hours you're out of luck. Not a good way to sell electric cars. .................................................................................................................................................. Anyway, the service manager says he'll get the locks cut off and get the charger functional again. He said maybe he'd ask for a couple dollars each time I charge. Question....Not to be cheap (well, I am) but aren't dealers expected to let the EV public (not just Nissan drivers) use these chargers for free? Do they really want to create a paper trail each time I use it?
Ask him how much he pays for electricity there. It's about 6.63 KW from dead to full. Then pay the (ahem, guy) better yet, get one of these and you will know exactly how much energy you consumed. Smart EV charging adapter | Reduced emissions, clean energy
no, i don't understand the thought process of a free charge. especially for the competition. let's face it, you're never going to buy a leaf, and certainly not because nissan let you charge for free.
I guess Elon Musk spoiled us all with his free network of chargers. By the way, the Toyota dealer next to the Nissan dealer....doesn't even have an outside charger!
Superchargers aren't free. On first release, only the 85kWh Model S came with the lifetime access standard. For the others, it was a $2000 option when gotten with the car, and $2500 to $3000 to get it after you took delivery.
Leaf's are the best option for an Ev right now. They're decent cars, they're dirt cheap and they come with "Nissan's no charge to charge" which is actually much more available than the Supercharger network. We've got 12 pure Ev's at my office - 1 Smart Ev and 11 Leaf's. I was in one the other day. We stopped at Costco and used the CHAdeMO charger in the parking lot - 380V and 100A = 38kW. That's a 10% every four minutes. It was at 99% when we go out half an hour later. The nearest Supercharger is 25 miles across town.
they're not giving them away around here for some reason, but used are cheap. i haven't looked closely, but suspect it's too small for me.
You might like the cargo area. It's the opposite of a Prius Prime - super deep. It's narrower and shorter, however, and even more unflat (in the other direction) from a Prime. I was surprised at how little fit in there from the store because there's limits as to how high you can stack stuff without crushing the stuff on the bottom or having it all tip over when you are driving. The Prime's cargo area is more useful to me despite the lack of height. I still haven't had anything I couldn't fit because it was interfering with the glass. The Leaf is also a five-seater.
nah, i like it broad, deep and high, like the pip. i'm too spoiled to downsize. as it is, i'm 97% electric, and 13% go anywhere i want to.
Answer.....Dealers are private entities. The only thing that they're "expected" to do is sell cars. Add to this, they are covered by insurance companies that are also private entities, and adopting a "come one, come all" policy opens them up to an unneeded liability burden - especially when most of the "customers" aren't even driving the cars that THEY sell, or maintain. So.....If a rich uncle died and left me a Nissan dealership and forced me to keep it, there are some things that I would do....(fire people, review pricing structures, etc....) and one of these would be to open my chargers up to the EV public in the hopes that some of them will come to my dealership when they needed their oil changed, or when the Leaf 2.0 comes out. I'd also see if I could write it off somehow as advertising or get dot.gov to give me a tax kickback for being "green." However........(comma!) I would remind EV drivers that this is an accommodation that I am making, and not in any way a privilege. If that many EV drivers are going to that Y, I would also put an honor-box suggesting that the EV drivers pop a quarter into the till when they stop by and publish the results....like the coffee can at work that always has a penny and a half dollar in it.
