jdcbomb wrote:I've always assumed that a person who buys a M3 likely did a bit of research to read up on the LEAF or other EVs. And ultimately ruling out others due to battery degradation risk, or bad looks, or something else.
That is, until a I met a couple M3 owners in my area. I happened to park my 18 MY L next to a new M3 at a public charging station, and I was a bit surprised to see they had no idea of the features or benefits or even TCO of a LEAF vs a M3.
Albeit driving experience is subjective, I guess I shouldn't be surprised they chose the M3 simply because they've been "hearing" about Tesla from friends and colleagues or just online chatter. One owner had no idea the current L has autopilot (Level 2), free charging for 2 years, or how gigantic the trunk is.
It's genius that Elon with Tesla continues to have mind share in the general public even without any marketing. Yet Nissan doesn't really seem to be trying at all or seriously enough and is essentially giving up market share to Tesla as they cannot figure out how to market these things effectively in the USA.
It's kind of sad as EV adoption would increase a lot faster if more people simply did some research and see the really affordable options out there...but I guess I expect too much.
Er, some of us did research, and a lot of it. And we have both a LEAF and a Model 3 to show for it. Different vehicles to be sure, filling different needs, both EV, both delightful in their own way. And in my view, Nissan gave up its huge first-mover advantage by not addressing the big complaints in any meaningful way of those of us who bought the early LEAFs (yeah, I know about the 5-year battery replacement...too little too late and really helped only those in hot climates). The rest of us had weak batteries too with no recompense. They then compounded the errors, again in my view, by being excruciatingly slow to market longer range vehicles. While nice, I'd call 200+ miles table stakes today, and 300 and beyond quite desirable given cold weather issues with all EVs. Yes, SuperChargers and DCQCs are very helpful and enable an EV to be an ICE replacement for longer distances. That said, it is still much, much easier and much, much faster to fill up a gas tank than to fill up an electron tank. I don't care where you put a SuperCharger/DCQC, I don't want to spend 45 minutes to an hour there at every fillup.
