Local Atlanta Nissan dealer put BAG and LOCK on its charger.

[scottf200]

ASIDE:

...In the signature of scottf200 he indicates that he gets 40 miles from his charged battery. I have seen this comment before. What is it that I am misunderstanding? The volt get 40 miles from a 5KWH battery and the Leaf gets 100 miles from a 23KWH battery? The Leaf battery is 4.6 times larger than the Volt, so the Leaf should get 40 times 4.6 which is 184 miles. Are numbers being stretched somewhere?

The Volt actually has about 10-11kWh of usable capacity. In the summer many Volt owners get over 40. We had a Volt for a year and a half. Our best range was around 52. Of course, in the winter it dropped to as little as 26. On the solar canopy, our 9.6kW system generates about 12,000 kWh each year. This would be about 48,000 miles for a Leaf or Roadster, probably 45,000 miles for a Volt and 36,000 miles for a Model S. Cut those by 10% for charging losses.

Since you asked, I'm getting 45+ EV battery only miles on my 2.5 yr old Volt recently in our low 90F weather with the A/C on ECO/2speedfanlevel/75F and all vents pointed at me (only person in car).

 

[RegGuheert]

what nonsense, sorry maybe you are so easily scared away but there are many people who have the cajones to go in and ask for assistance and lo and behold the dealership was friendly and easy to deal with.
the moral to the story is invest more than a few seconds of brain time assessing a situation before issuing absurd proclamations

About half the population have no cajones!

This is what is known as a barrier to sales. IMO, good salespeople work to identify and eliminate sales barriers. Unfortunately, management is often responsible for erecting sales barriers, since they sometimes do not understand how they negatively impact sales.

As mentioned earlier, Tesla has done an excellent job understanding the mindset of their target market and have actively worked to eliminate the barriers to sales that exist. I'm sure they will continue to do that. The traditional car companies are handicapped in that they have the experience with traditional cars that says "this always worked for us in the past". It's a challenge to unlearn lessons previously learned.

 

[thankyouOB]

is this what is known as Southern hospitality?

 

[Nubo]

I think the message is somewhat discouraging. "See Manager", implies it's been locked down and there may be some difficulty. It implies that you'll have to get ahold of one single person. The busiest person at the dealership. In implies that this resource is considered SO precious that only the person with the highest authority at the dealership can bestow access. What if they're out of the office, etc...?

I understand there may be a need to discourage abuse, but how about:

CHARGING GLADLY PROVIDED
INQUIRE WITHIN

This at least gives the impression that anyone in the place can hook you up.

 

[Nubo]

Slight deviation of subject....

Will that solar canopy at the Atlanta Chevy dealer really charge 6 EV's or will it just charge 6 Chevy Volts? I am being sincere here, no sarcasm intended. 6 Leafs is 6 x 23KWH for a total of 138KWH of battery capacity. 6 Volts is 6 x 5KWH for a total of 30KWH battery capacity.

You may be thinking that the panels are charging the cars directly. That's probably not the way it works. Typically, the panels will feed their power into the power grid and the cars will be charged off the grid. On any particular day, the panels may provide more power than is consumed, or less. Whether or not the panels will "cover" all of the power demands of charging, over time, is another matter.

 

[TomT]

What you are misunderstanding is that the Volt is NOT a 5 KWh battery. It is 16 KWh of which approximately 11 is usable... The Leaf has about 21 KWh of the 24 KWh usable, by the way...

...In the signature of scottf200 he indicates that he gets 40 miles from his charged battery. I have seen this comment before. What is it that I am misunderstanding? The volt get 40 miles from a 5KWH battery and the Leaf gets 100 miles from a 23KWH battery?

 

[TomT]

Sometimes the truth hurts...

it doesn't say closed, go away, or not for your usage,...

Those words may not be printed on the ugly bag, but the message seems pretty clear to me: "The manager of this dealership does not give away anything for free and/or only sells EVs under protest. As a result, if you want to charge your EV here, you will need to negotiate your charge with him/her. If you did not buy your EV here, there is no need to apply within." The message at the Chevy dealer is "We love the Chevy Volt! Look at the fancy charging facility we have installed with all the new Volts happily charging away! Come on in and let's talk about EVs! We are much nicer than that jerk down the street!"

my goodness, are you a GM shill?

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

What an entertaining thread!

Frankly I'm amazed they'd go to the effort and expense to have that custom cover made up with the printing.

Usually when you see something like this there's a story behind it, maybe vandals, copper theives or some customers hogging the facility. Although that bag isn't going to slow down the former.

 

[scottf200]

ASIDE:

Slight deviation of subject.... Will that solar canopy at the Atlanta Chevy dealer really charge 6 EV's or will it just charge 6 Chevy Volts? I am being sincere here, no sarcasm intended. 6 Leafs is 6 x 23KWH for a total of 138KWH of battery capacity. 6 Volts is 6 x 5KWH for a total of 30KWH battery capacity.

You may be thinking that the panels are charging the cars directly. That's probably not the way it works. Typically, the panels will feed their power into the power grid and the cars will be charged off the grid. On any particular day, the panels may provide more power than is consumed, or less. Whether or not the panels will "cover" all of the power demands of charging, over time, is another matter.

Ditto for many of the Tesla Supercharging stations (although some will have batteries).

 

[apvbguy]

Sometimes the truth hurts...

some people get more attached to their cars than others. the emotions and affections you must have for you EVs is emotions I reserve for other things, not usually objects

 

[TomT]

Umm... You misinterpreted it, as usual... Re-read the quotes and you will see it is the other way around...

Sometimes the truth hurts...

some people get more attached to their cars than others. the emotions and affections you must have for you EVs is emotions I reserve for other things, not usually objects

 

[DaveEV]

Really the only company that has this figured out is Tesla. The other car makers are just clueless when it comes to charge stations.

Even Tesla has issues with customers charging their cars at stores. Often when you only have a couple charging stations and you end up inconsiderate customers leaving their car plugged in all day, you quickly figure out that the only way to keep those stations from being mis-used is to make someone go in and ask to use them.

 

[SanDust]

This is the reason why I've been most unimpressed with Nissan's roll out of Chademo chargers through Nissan dealers. Presumably this is to speed up the roll out of DC chargers but it won't help if dealers aren't welcoming and I suspect most won't be.

This could just have been a mistake. My guess is that it's a dumb decision by a service manager. The service manager would be looking at the hassle of having people use the chargers and may want to restrict charging, at least to Leaf owners and maybe to those who bought their Leaf at that dealership. That however would be short sighted. A Volt or Model S owner is a prime candidate for a Leaf (and vice versa), and using free charging to get owners of other EVs to come in and spend a few minutes looking at their product offerings is a win.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

There are two issues in play here.

First of which, as drees referred to, public charging requires customers to be considerate and as such is fundamentally flawed. Money and economics are what we use to allocate sparse resources, not peoples good nature.

Secondly, automobile dealerships are a poor places to locate charging facilities. There is nothing to do there; if you aren't there to buy a car or get your car fixed or buy parts, you really have no business being there. These are places of business, not hang outs for nerds. Space on the lot is a limited resource, and these people are making their living there. You can see it in their eyes as you enter, they get paid to make sales, not dispense free electricity.

Tesla's approach really is much better. Make the battery big enough so you can do your routine business without going around town from one place to another groveling for a plug.

 

[apvbguy]

Tesla's approach really is much better. Make the battery big enough so you can do your routine business without going around town from one place to another groveling for a plug.

we seem to have a winner, is there another silly issue that needs beating to death?

 

[doberman]

Dude...very "un-duuude"...thats pretty lame - I would call up Nissan Leaf and Nissan Corporate and let them know that a dealership is turning away people who could be potential advocates for electric car buyers. Its a great opportunity for potential customers to see a Leaf owner charging. Even if that Leaf owner bought from another dealership. Its allows potential customers to ask questions to actual owners.

 

[apvbguy]

Dude...very "un-duuude"...thats pretty lame - I would call up Nissan Leaf and Nissan Corporate and let them know that a dealership is turning away people who could be potential advocates for electric car buyers. Its a great opportunity for potential customers to see a Leaf owner charging. Even if that Leaf owner bought from another dealership. Its allows potential customers to ask questions to actual owners.

do people really use the term "dude"?
why do you assume that the dealership is turning anyone away?
were you turned away? was anyone you know turned away? has anyone anywhere reported being turned away?
stop making unsubstantiated assumptions, it is annoying and childish, DUDE

 

[atlleaf]

another chevy dealer with solar chargers

 

[RegGuheert]

why do you assume that the dealership is turning anyone away?

Because it would turn me away.

In sales terminology, EVs at this point in time are known as "missionary sales". We early adopters have already made our initial purchases. For the next round of growth, the dealerships cannot just sit back and expect customers to make the mental leap from ICE to an EV. They need to actively reach out and EVangelize those people who might be prospective customers.

One question that EVERY new EV prospect will have is "What do I do if I'm in town and I don't have enough charge to make it home?". The bag on the EVSE at the Nissan dealer clearly says: "If the manager is not here, you are out of luck! We won't be here for you when you need us the most." The fancy, modern, solar-powered charging station at the Chevy dealer shouts: "We've got your back." What is funny is that the Chevy Volt doesn't come with the same level of range anxiety that the Nissan LEAF does, so the Nissan dealer truly needs to provide that assurance for their LEAF customers more than the Chevy dealer does.

 

[caffeinekid]

Dude...very "un-duuude"...thats pretty lame - I would call up Nissan Leaf and Nissan Corporate and let them know that a dealership is turning away people who could be potential advocates for electric car buyers. Its a great opportunity for potential customers to see a Leaf owner charging. Even if that Leaf owner bought from another dealership. Its allows potential customers to ask questions to actual owners.

do people really use the term "dude"?
why do you assume that the dealership is turning anyone away?
were you turned away? was anyone you know turned away? has anyone anywhere reported being turned away?
stop making unsubstantiated assumptions, it is annoying and childish, DUDE

do people really troll these days? Yes...apparently.
Whether or not someone was actually "turned away" makes no difference. The point that seems to be eluding you is that Nissan is pushing a 'new' product and needs to ensure that their representative dealerships aren't sullying the brand with behaviors that make their adopters uncomfortable. No one is leaching or scamming the dealer by charging their Leaf on a Nissan branded premises. As others have mentioned, what happens when the DC chargers start showing up? And yes, requiring someone to request use of a publicly accessible charger is less than welcoming, supportive and in poor CR form. Like most other things, if it is an issue of previous abuse, then address on an individual basis rather than punishing everyone. That mentality speaks volumes about the type of entity you (the dealership) are and people are sensitive to this. It is no better than only permitting access within the service bay.