Nissan LEAF Reservations

Gavin said:

Maybe I'm just easy, but I was waiting for a different electric car for over 2 years. Waiting less than a year for a LEAF seems like nothing to me .

Though of course I would like one yesterday.

Gavin

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It's OK, Gavin. You can say the Aptera word here. :roll:

I agree...the information we are getting seems like manna from heaven compared to....um....some other sites.

JimmyD

daniel said:

I'm hoping (as are many others) that the EV Project complements, but does not define, the initial roll-out. They never said Seattle was the market. They said Washington. You could very well be right. But they have never clarified that, and if after all it's only Seattle, I will feel that they were dishonest with us. Why say "Washington" if they meant only Seattle?

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Diniel, what does your dealer say ? They should know ...

My dealer has 3 Leaf Certified people. The manager (one of the 3) said I knew more than he did regarding Leaf status.

They are not getting any information yet, either.

mitch672 said:

Oh its spelled out EXACTLY what the 10 cities are:

"In the summer of 2010, charging infrastructure will be deployed in the following major population areas: Phoenix (AZ), Tucson (AZ), San Diego (CA), Portland (OR), Eugene (OR), Corvallis (OR), Seattle (WA), Nashville (TN), Knoxville (TN) and Chattanooga (TN). The Nissan LEAF will be available in those same areas in the fall of 2010 to consumers and fleets"

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First of all, that comes from the EV Project web site, not from Nissan. Second, it says that the Leaf will be available in those cities, where the EV Project is installing chargers. It does NOT say the Leaf will be available ONLY in those cities.

I fear you are right, but your link and quote do not make that clear. And the customer service line told me they had not yet decided whether or not the car would be available in Spokane. If they were lying to keep us interested, when they had in fact decided not to sell the car here in December, that would reflect very badly on them.

efusco said:

Daniel,
I think Jessica probably gets paid by Nissan and works a 9-5 M-F job with weekends, holidays and 2 weeks paid vacation a year. I also suspect her job entails other duties besides hanging out at this little forum answering all of our random questions.

I think it's great that she's participating, but we have to be appreciative of the limits of both her time and on what she is allowed by Nissan to say.

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Yes, you're probably right, Evan.

It's just frustrating when something as significant as where they're going to sell the car is kept such a secret.

evnow said:

Diniel, what does your dealer say ? They should know ...

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Ha!!! My dealer says they WILL get the leaf in December. But he's told me things that turned out to be wrong, so apparently he knows as little as we do. I'll talk to him again next week.

I wonder when Los Angeles and Orange County can expect delivery??

Good morning!
Great conversations going on here. Thanks for your interest and patience!

LEAF availability is going to be driven by customer orders - it is helping us plan where to go next. We will be launching in 20 regions by the first half of 2011. The launch markets are places where there will be public charging, our dealers have been trained and incentives are in place.

We want to insure there's a level of support to make ownership as perfect as we can.

Jessica,

Quick question on initial rollout places. I'm in Seattle.

Would we get a 1,000 cars in December this year - or will it be just a handful in December and rest in 2011 ? As you can understand, getting the car in 2011 Jan vs 2010 December makes a big difference in terms of sales tax (exemption expires in 2010) and also for tax planning.

Was one of the first to put an online deposit as well ... a Red SL,

Chicago isn't one of the initial launch cities??? but hopefully enough interest will convince Nissan

I liked the fact that the site has you go through some basics on if the LEAF is something really feasible for your type of driving, etc. (also find it curious that the car the LEAF will replace for me is a smart -- all lower case to UPPER case letters --- our '08 smart fortwo coupe will go to our recent college grad).

Hopefully Nissan will bring the LEAF to the next Chicago Auto Show --- it was surely missed at the last one!

Lastly, it's great to see JessicawithNissan providing some updates so we can see how the rest of the country is interested ... keep it coming

Hi Jessica,
Thanks for the recent post on the launch plans. I am sure there will be a lot of analysis done over the next 60 days as the reservations come in. I can imagine a great little Google map with all of the reservations plotted on it. Probably that gives away too much proprietary information, but sure would be neat to see. In any event, this last post gives me an indication that Pennsylvania will be in the second half of 2011. Twenty launch regions are not a great many through the first half of next year. I'll be waiting with much anticipation to see how it all shakes out. In the meantime, it seems I am going to have to nurse along my internal combustion ride

The "incentive in place" for CA ($5000) is great, but is it just funded for the first 800 Leafs in CA (approximately $4,000,000)?

Just got my confirmation email from Nissan. Reserved a Silver SL on 4/20. Received email on 4/26.

'thank you for reserving a Nissan LEAF(TM). we will be in touch by June 30 with more details on your spot and how to begin preparing your home for your new car.* you may qualify as part of the U.S. government's EV Project.**'

Email contains partial cc #, amount charged $99 and confirmation #

Every small step brings us one step closer to driving one out of the dealership.

SilverLeaf said:

Just got my confirmation email from Nissan. Reserved a Silver SL on 4/20. Received email on 4/26.

'thank you for reserving a Nissan LEAF(TM). we will be in touch by June 30 with more details on your spot and how to begin preparing your home for your new car.* you may qualify as part of the U.S. government's EV Project.**'

Email contains partial cc #, amount charged $99 and confirmation #

Every small step brings us one step closer to driving one out of the dealership.

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Same here -- reserved a Red SL 0n 4/20, email last night on 4/26; although the end of the email they sent to me was a bit different because Chicago isn't part of the first 5 cities I would guess:

'we will be in touch by June 30 with more details on your spot and how to begin preparing your home for your new car.* so buckle your seat belt, because you're now that much closer to The New Car becoming your new car. '

Also, in researching for info on other Nissan LEAF forums (BTW this one seems to have the most info), I came across a techie who was trying to decipher the resv code that Nissan's system gives you when you get a confirmation (this guy says it's UNIX based), he had figured that if he converted the HEX number back to decimal and then a UNIX date it would create an expected delivery date (it will give you a date if you convert it!) his showed sometime in April 2011 (part of a launch city) but mine shows 1995 so doubt if this has any relevance. If you are in a launch city perhaps it will work for you ... I'm sure Nissan will say that these are simply random numbers but you never know!

ooohhhh noooooooo....don't open that hexadecimal box!!!

I know, I know ... don't get anyone's hopes up on breaking the 'magic' code but these things go on all over ... as I mentioned in other threads, the LEAF will replace my '08 smart and we 'cracked' the reservation code numbers early (my car was delivered right on the date in the resv code ... we had people finding them in port, etc. ... it was great!). With this multi-city intro as well as adding other cities based on demand, it may not be so straightforward with the LEAF but we'll see ...

The confirmation code is indeed a mystery. Not at all what I'd have done as a database professional.

BTW, the software was apparently written by someone called MC. One of the sloppiest I've seen - style over functionality. With all the bugs, they nearly wrecked Nissan's plans.

Maybe this will help... my recent conversation with Nissan.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Friday, April 23, 2010 7:36 PM (4/24/2010 12:36:23 AM - GMT)

Welcome to EV Customer Support, Sean will be right with you.

Sean:
Thank you for contacting Nissan Electric Vehicle Customer Support, my name is Sean. How may I help you today Christopher?

Christopher:
When the leaf is available which cites in California will get it?

Sean:
Thanks for your interest in the Nissan Leaf Electric Vehicle. I'd be happy to answer that for you, Christopher. Please give me a few moments while I answer that for you. While I gather this information for you, for demographic purposes, can I have your last name email address and zip code please.

Christopher:
xxxxx, [email protected], 91xxx

Sean:
Nissan has a statewide rollout planned for California. The Nissan LEAF will be made available in specific states initially in December, including Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona, and Tennessee. Shortly thereafter more states will be included, first rolling out to key markets in which we have partnerships such as Orlando and Houston. The Nissan LEAF will be available across the country by late 2011.

Christopher:
So at rollout I should get my reservation in December in Los Angeles (depending on my place in line)?

Christopher:
Is that right?

Sean:
Yes. I see you have registered on the Leaf website for updates and news. You will be receiving news about the rollout as it happens.

Sean:
And Nissan will update you on the progress of your order around the end of June.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We may be able to save Jess some time.

Here's a paper from Nissan dated Oct 09.

Page 17 shows three categories of areas - areas with memorandums of understanding (MOU), areas with partnerships, and target markets with contacts made.

Page 44 lists areas and answers "is this a trial area?" question...

Page 47 shows a detail of the SeaTac area.

I suspect the MOUs refer to agreements with local/regional power companies for charging infrastructure.

Note also that on the main Nissan Leaf website there are example letters for us to edit and send to our state and federal reps -it's likely time for us "25%ers" outside the initial roll-out areas to beat on our decision makers and drag them (kicking and screaming if necessary) in the EV present!

Andy

JesswithNissan said:

Good morning!
We will be launching in 20 regions by the first half of 2011.

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Do you know what those 20 regions are?

Thanks.

Gavin

The number of customers who have pre-ordered the all-electric Nissan Leaf is up to 8,000. That’s 10 days after Nissan started taking take $99 refundable deposits. “I’m feeling pretty good about it,” Mark Perry, director of product planning at Nissan, told HybridCars.com.

The pre-orders so far are “just part of a whole launch plan,” Perry said. Nissan is planning a test-drive tour this fall, and hopes to grant drives to 40,000 to 50,000 people, who be able to kick the tires and get behind the wheel. This will occur months before the vehicle arrives in dealership showrooms, when consumers will be able to purchase the vehicle in a more traditional way.

All told, Nissan could run into a problem of not having enough Leafs to go around. “We would love an issue where demand exceeds supply. That’s a good news problem to have,” Perry said.