Welcome to both Chelsea and Jeff; Nissan backing your presence here is long overdue, and I don't envy the job Jeff has. I have no financial interest or emotional stake in whether or not the Leaf is a success or failure, only a wish to see EVs as a whole succeed. Having dealt with a similar early adopter market a couple decades ago while selling off-grid AE systems, I've been both amazed and appalled at Nissan's approach to customer relations. If they'd deliberately set out to damage/destroy all the goodwill they'd earned by introducing the first reasonably mainstream EV, and to alienate the enthusiast early adopters who were (and should be) their best salespeople, they couldn't have done a more thorough job.
FWIW, here's my take on what needs to change:
1. Mark Perry needs to stop making statements about the Leaf. To put it as politely as I can, every time he does so he contradicts his previous statements and/or misstates facts, further damaging both his and Nissan's credibility.
2. Similarly, Carlo Bailo has to stop issuing letters to the Leaf community full of vapid platitudes and vague, weasel-worded generalities approved by lawyers and lifted direct from the owner's manual. These statements are seen as insulting and condescending by the informed, educated, technically savvy Leaf early adopter community. What is needed is not more repetition of statements along the line of 'heat, charging frequency, driving habits etc. may result in faster levels of degradation' - early adopters need and want specifics. How much heat, how long, what driving and charging habits? What is the driving range under a variety of conditions?
It's a scandal that an owner (Tony Williams) had to run his first Leaf repeatedly to turtle to provide owners with range data that should have been in the owners manual from day one. Unless Nissan engineers are far less competent than GM's (see "The Car that Could"), they had all this information. What is needed are graphs, charts and tables in the owner's manual providing the info that the owners need to maximize the Leaf's performance, utility, range and longevity. Nissan has been trying to sell the Leaf as if its customers were the same mostly uninformed mass audience for their ICEs, rather than the curious, technically knowledgeable early adopters that they are. This has to change, until EV performance, price and infrastructure has improved to the point that they will be adopted by mainstream users.
3. We need one point of contact with Nissan, and that should be you, Jeff. Tell us what you know, and don't be afraid to tell us if you don't; we'll wait while you consult the engineers who do have the answer, but be honest and open with us. And if THEY don't know, tell us that, too; we can accept it.
4. RegGuheert and others have made excellent suggestions as to steps Nissan can take to try and recover their reputation. While all those that deal with taking care of current owners are important, I see three that are most critical for re-establishing trust between the company and its customers, giving them confidence that Nissan will stand behind their cars in the long-term and isn't just interested in taking the money and running:
- a) Admit there's a problem, and the lawyers be damned. If Nissan had done this up front and asked for the help of the customers, instead of denying, delaying and treating their customers like the ill-informed masses, they wouldn't be in this situation. It may cost them some millions of dollars in the short term, but that's far less than what continuing on their current path of denial will cost them in goodwill over the long haul. Ms. Bailo's announcement that there's nothing wrong with the batteries, but they're going to discuss compensation individually with some owners (presumably requiring them to sign NDAs as a condition of any settlement), is exactly the wrong approach if you're trying to establish a reputation for openness and honest dealing. Follow GM's lead on how they dealt with the Volt (non-) safety issue - a public statement by the CEO, 'if you want to return the car you can, no questions asked.'
- b) Stop selling cars in Arizona and other affected areas, and only lease them for short terms and with massive pre-purchase warning to potential buyers, until Nissan develops a battery chemistry or installs an active TMS that can deal with the conditions. As long as Nissan continues to sell the car in these unsuitable areas to unsuspecting members of the public, any other steps they take to try to re-establish the company's reputation for integrity will be seen as just lip-service.
- c) Warranty battery capacity. All EV companies will have to do this to move into the mainstream, especially while battery technology remains so immature. Large numbers of people just aren't going to take a multi-thousand dollar flyer on how long a battery may last, or what a replacement may cost.
Good Luck to both of you - You'll need it.
Edit: cleaned up typos etc., and added a little.
