DaveinOlyWA wrote:cwerdna wrote:OrientExpress wrote:I think what you are saying is that the cost of increased battery warranty claims, and more folks being pissed that Nissan changed something that would have a detrimental affect on the car outweighs a handful of folks that believe they are entitled to this change.
Interesting theory.
Yeah. That's most of my hypothesis.
It's possible that allowing for increased DC FCing rate might push more batteries into reaching 8 bars before the 8 year/100K capacity warranty expires in the US and that effect might be more widespread in the US than Europe --> increased Nissan warranty costs. That'd be a reason for Nissan to say no in the US.
And, most US '18+ Leafers may be unaware of rapid gate, hence the low complaints. And, again, even those that do know not might not bother spending/wasting their time (prior to this update news) complaining to Nissan only to be told this is "by design" (what what earlier Nissan statements basically said). I would've been in this boat if I had an '18. I suspect Nissan will see a spike in complaints
as word spreads.
And, those who complained to just dealer might've also gotten a "by design" response that never bubbled its way up to Nissan corporate.
Yeah, you're right about the cost. At minimum, there's dealer tech labor time that would need to be reimbursed by Nissan corporate. There'd be other ancillary costs like writing and localizing the TSB, training EV helpline staff and validating the change (presumably that's all done).
Unaware? Yes. Low complaints? Nooooo
Survey posts on Facebook from last Summer. Tons of complaints but the focus was pushed away from RapidGate by "us"
Every time someone complained of not getting the charge they were expecting they were bombarded by responses about 25 KW chargers or 40 KW chargers, etc without addressing the OP's concern at all. So the OP doesn't get an answer, is overwhelmed by unrelated data and the issue dies.
I responded time and time again that RapidGate is real but by then there was so much noise on the thread that I doubt much of the message got thru.
There's a huge difference between some folks "talking" about it on social media (and running into obstacles/noise to boot) vs. actual complaints that make their way to Nissan North America.
I suspect if I took a poll at work of people w/'18 or '19 Leafs asking something along the lines of "prior to this question, were you aware of "rapidgate" on '18 or '19 Leafs?", I wouldn't be surprised if at least 50% answer no.
Remember, probably most non-EV enthusiasts do not frequent this board or Leaf FB groups nor keep up with EV news. I started
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=16446& long ago.
viewtopic.php?p=349448#p349448 was an example street encounter I had in 2014 with a guy with an '11 Leaf that didn't know about the capacity bars, didn't know he was down 2 bars and hadn't ever seen Tony's range charts.
You're on some of the same Leaf FB groups as I am. I'm sure you've noticed a lot of same newb questions and issues over and over (e.g. GOM confusion (e.g. I drove 45 miles and a I "used 80 miles" of charge), questions around charging, not knowing that high speeds is an efficiency and range killer, etc. This is for people who actually show up to ask/mention things.
We have enough people who don't know the difference between kW and kWh and thus use the wrong units. I suspect many non-EV enthusiasts don't know what's the max charge rate in kW of the DC FC they're using, that charging slows down as the battery gets fuller, factors that cause DC FCing to be slower, etc.
LeftieBiker wrote: OrientExpress is very reliable in his defense of Nissan. He has some sort of working relationship with them, so consider him as roughly the equivalent of a "Fanboy."
Some folks here have used other words to describe his behavior here and on some Leaf FB groups...
