DaveinOlyWA said:
it is a bit "strange" that Tesla which is still essentially very much a start up, able to put in a nationwide charging system by the end of 2013 but Nissan cannot outfit their dealerships with DCFCs. If I were Nissan, i definitely would do it and require dealer permission for any non LEAF to charge.
To me, it is almost two separate examples. Tesla only needs stations every 150-200 miles, and they've made the decision that those stations are a marketing expense (if you buy a Tesla Model S, sir, you can use our Supercharger network and take trips for free). Elon said at the Supercharger event late last year that he thought it would cost $20-$30M to build out their SC network across the US. In many cases, Tesla is installing them in semi-out-of-the-way places where power is right adjacent or nearby. That is important from an installation cost and a land acquisition/lease cost. They also minimize cost because the stations don't have to do point-of-sale billing. Plug in and charge for free...
Nissan, on the other hand, would need to install many more stations to get the same penetration or effect because of the LEAF's shorter range. In fact, it is my opinion that the dealerships are probably not the best place for Nissan to locate their DC FC stations. It would cost a LOT of money to install them at some of the dealer sites because of the 3-phase power requirements that may or may not exist there. Some dealers are close to the freeways where the DC FC would be valuable, but several of the dealers are far from freeways (which may not be as ideal for DC FC). Also, while it was listed as an option on their DC FC sales website, the early Nissan / Sumitomo models did not do billing. So if Nissan or the dealers intended to collect revenue for charging, that would cost extra for the hardware.
I think Nissan would be better off to fund a few DC FC in key metropolitan areas on or around the key in/out roads to the cities/towns so that LEAFs could use them to springboard to or from the next city or town. And if they do want to fund a grant for the stations, pay for the entire installation and don't require the host to have to pay some of the costs. That just slows down site acquisition until people come to the table that are willing to pay (and their sites may not be optimal)...
It isn't an easy problem to solve since the total installed cost of a DC FC station is much higher than people think. I'll say $15-25K for hardware (depending on features) and $15-$25K for installation (depending on available power).
So that's my two cents worth...