Outrageous Charger Installation Quotes

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Wow cinmar! That's outrageous indeed.

Have you called an electrician for a second opinion?

If you live in the Memphis, TN area, I recommend Hall Electric, Inc. Call Scott at 901.553.7173.

Perhaps I should start a discussion section of recommended "second opinion" electricians...
 
My crude depiction of the solution:

34iijxj.jpg
 
New to this forum so bear with me.
I also was appalled at the Installation charge AV was hitting me with. 2 feet of wire, 1 hour max of work for $1300? C'mon! I complained and they knocked off $200 which really didn't make a dent. Although tempted to go the route of getting the charger separately and hiring my own electrician, I see two problems with that approach:

1) Permitting
I know it sound ridiculous but local municipalities have to approve the installation of a home charging device before it can be installed. This was one of the MAJOR sticking points in the MiniE program. My city absolutely refused (their reasoning is a long story) until BMW essentially bribed them with FIVE free MiniE's and gave me one free month lease payment. Although I could save about $800 with my own electrician, the permitting process for the charger could be no joke in my city. I hope Nissan is ready for this. To be honest, it is absolutely ludicrous that cities get involved with this when homeowners put in all sorts of other 220V applications without such red tape. Now, I may be wrong about this with the Leaf, but last year in June 2009 it was a real mess just trying to get that charger approved to be used.

2) Charger Availability
So other vendors sell the charging unit. What about availability? Wouldn't it make sense that when it came time to take delivery of your vehicle that AV would have a lock on the most of the availability of this charging unit? How long would it actually take for other vendors to supply the unit? And let's say you buy it directly from AV -- wouldn't they set aside their units for those people who are purchasing it WITH their installation?

Regardless, the cards are stacked against us. My local electrician witnessed the permit process needed for the MiniE charger (which is much better than Nissan's charger) and suggested this might not all go as smoothly as Nissan and AV plans.
 
All the more reason to tell Nissan you just plan to use trickle charging if they would accept that answer. Assuming there's no big complexities like maxed out service panels just install the unit yourself (or have an electrician do it) without a permit. When it's time to sell and move, just remove the device. If it's in your garage in a SFH who would even know?
 
For what it's worth I called up Nissan yesterday and had them connect me to AV. I talked to ... Sara (?) and asked what was going on with the re-evaluation of my quote. She told me that AV has been revisiting their whole charging structure for "minimal" installations and they expect to have that done by next week. Whether or not they will reach out to everyone or to just people that requested a re-evaluation like I did, I don't know.
 
JasonT said:
For what it's worth I called up Nissan yesterday and had them connect me to AV. I talked to ... Sara (?) and asked what was going on with the re-evaluation of my quote. She told me that AV has been revisiting their whole charging structure for "minimal" installations and they expect to have that done by next week. Whether or not they will reach out to everyone or to just people that requested a re-evaluation like I did, I don't know.


AV makes things up left and right, they acted like my quote slipped through and that that simple quotes were all going out correctly now, that was weeks ago and to this day they never adjusted mine, they promised three days max. They are like a used car sales dept.
 
wq2345 said:
New to this forum so bear with me.
I also was appalled at the Installation charge AV was hitting me with. 2 feet of wire, 1 hour max of work for $1300? C'mon! I complained and they knocked off $200 which really didn't make a dent. Although tempted to go the route of getting the charger separately and hiring my own electrician, I see two problems with that approach:

1) Permitting
I know it sound ridiculous but local municipalities have to approve the installation of a home charging device before it can be installed. This was one of the MAJOR sticking points in the MiniE program. My city absolutely refused (their reasoning is a long story) until BMW essentially bribed them with FIVE free MiniE's and gave me one free month lease payment. Although I could save about $800 with my own electrician, the permitting process for the charger could be no joke in my city. I hope Nissan is ready for this. To be honest, it is absolutely ludicrous that cities get involved with this when homeowners put in all sorts of other 220V applications without such red tape. Now, I may be wrong about this with the Leaf, but last year in June 2009 it was a real mess just trying to get that charger approved to be used.

2) Charger Availability
So other vendors sell the charging unit. What about availability? Wouldn't it make sense that when it came time to take delivery of your vehicle that AV would have a lock on the most of the availability of this charging unit? How long would it actually take for other vendors to supply the unit? And let's say you buy it directly from AV -- wouldn't they set aside their units for those people who are purchasing it WITH their installation?

Regardless, the cards are stacked against us. My local electrician witnessed the permit process needed for the MiniE charger (which is much better than Nissan's charger) and suggested this might not all go as smoothly as Nissan and AV plans.


If you have a mini charger you can use it instead, if not the connection is there, just add a plug and use a leviton. Do you need an approval for a dryer outlet? That's what the Leviton uses. I would not even contact the city frankly. Where do you live?
 
I have a Clipper Creek charger for my Mini which I believe I *might* be able to convert over for use with the Leaf. Maybe not. I'm going to start a thread about this unless someone knows where the answer might be on the forum. I've searched but haven't found it. I like the idea of simply doing the trickle charge and then later installing my own charging unit without the hassles of the city permitting process. By the looks of things AV will probably royally screw up getting the permit approved.

Question - my order has gone through now and I've done all the steps required. I assume I can back out any time from using AV for the EVSE. How do I do that? People mention some waiver -- is this on the dashboard somewhere?

Anyways, after the experience with the Mini-E, I *know* the whole process will take much longer than anticipated. BMW took an extra 5 months to deliver the car because of all sorts of issues. I fear similar things will happen here (that's why I kept the MiniE another year).
 
Didn't someone with a Mini call Clipper Creek and arrange a new plug for their charger? Get busy with the search and you'll probably find it, or maybe give Clipper Creek a call.

Meanwhile, Consumer Reports has picked up on the EVSE controversy:

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2010/09/nissan-leaf-electric-car-charger-installation-cost-proves-shocking.html
 
wq2345 said:
2) Charger Availability
So other vendors sell the charging unit. What about availability? Wouldn't it make sense that when it came time to take delivery of your vehicle that AV would have a lock on the most of the availability of this charging unit? How long would it actually take for other vendors to supply the unit? And let's say you buy it directly from AV -- wouldn't they set aside their units for those people who are purchasing it WITH their installation?

You can buy one today from http://www.ev-chargeamerica.com/products_ev2004.html
The 240v model number is actually 2104 not 2004 shown

The price given to me was $895 and they take a credit card for immediate shipment.

Contact:

Dwight Dagenais
EV Charge America
702-204-7099
 
One of the most helpful forums I've ever had the pleasure of posting to. Thanks for the suggestions.
I think I'll definitely opt out of AV's inflated price and either get whatever ClipperCreek can provide me or a separate charger.

Question: how does one opt out of the AV quote? I've read other places about some waiver that needs to be completed?

By the way, I'm in Pasadena. However, I've heard that other cities in CA and NJ also gave BMW and their MiniE test drivers major headaches last year over the non-UL certified cable attached to the Clipper Creek charger.
 
Hi wq2345!
I am in the city of San Gabriel (your neighbor). I am going to get my own licensed electrician do the work and he is charging me HALF of what AV's contracted electrician has quoted. I will be paying $700 for the electrical work and installation. AV quoted me $1300 + and the permit was also DOUBLE of what my city told me it costed! The AV permit quote was $230 and my city told me it costed $111 !!!!

Take care neighbor! :D
John, San Gabriel, CA
 
wq2345 said:
Question: how does one opt out of the AV quote?
You don't have to. The waiver was only to allow you to perform the RAQ on your dashboard. For the AV quote, just ignore it. When they call to schedule an installation, say "no thanks".
 
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