Thanks for posting the list of metro areas that are in the running.
My big concern is that a lot of those areas listed are already home to sizable Quick Charging networks. I know everyone wants more QCs in their neck of the woods, and I don't mean to disparage anyone's community, but wouldn't it be a better use of Nissan's resources for the stations to only go to places that do not already have a number of publicly available QCs? Places like Phoenix, Portland, Seattle, Houston, Dallas, and soon Washington DC/Baltimore all have/will soon have a lot of QC stations available. Yes, some of them are only available if you pay a monthly access fee, but they're there. (And to be honest, who knows what sort of accessibility we will see with these Nissan QCs...)
My second concern is about how many or how few stations each metro area will wind up getting under this program. How will this be decided? Will Portland get 20 out of the 100, because they've been a huge Leaf market? Would that be to the detriment of, for example, the NYC area? (which despite its large population, hasn't been a huge Leaf market, perhaps because of the lack of infrastructure) Or, is Nissan planning on just putting 5 or so in each metro area and hoping for the best? Will it be first come/first served based on which dealers respond that they are willing to have a station installed? What sort of thought is being put into which dealerships qualify? My fear is that some really poorly placed dealers will raise their hand for the "free" station and the better, more useful locations will miss out.
My final concern is the one that has been voiced a number of times already. Nissan really needs to find a way to get the dealers in line as far as station accessibility. What good is a well placed QC station if it's blocked by a Murano all day? What good is it if it's behind a locked gate at 8pm? And what good is it if a dealer feels he can charge $60/session because that's what he pays to gas up his ICE? There needs to be some sort of incentive for the dealership to allow as much access as possible. The easy choice is encouraging dealers to charge for use, so they can see it as a revenue stream; but dealers need to understand that this isn't a gas pump and that comparable pricing means it'll never be used. Hopefully Nissan will be providing some assistance in this area.
At the end of the day, my hope for this program is that it plants the seeds needed to get a lot more infrastructure in the ground in a lot more places. In NY, for example, having a bunch of QC stations installed would help Nissan sell more cars. More cars in the area would hopefully prove to Blink or eVgo or whoever that the NY area can support more QC stations. Those additional QC stations would go further towards helping Nissan selling more cars, and so on and so forth. I just don't see Nissan getting quite as much return on its investment by installing these stations in markets that already have a decent number of QCs.