Sunday, March 30, 2014

Nissan Dealer Charger Updates

Yesterday on my way to a job in Montesano, I swung by Oly Nissan to check out the changers to their DC
Fast Charger.  They had installed a Chargepoint Interface and according to it the cost to charge was $3 minimum or $10 a day!

$10 a day??? Can that really be their decision?  Since it was 6 AM,  the business was closed and a lot LEAF was plugged into the station with an "Out of Order" sign attached.  Now wondering if the sign is hung every night when they close to discourage after hour charging?

Now the 180 º turnaround is not without some explanation.  Ray from Magic Nissan in Everett  states Nissan gave them the option now that the "One Year" Pilot program was ending (Oly actually only participated a few months...)

of

1) Taking over the charger along with maintenance, cost, etc.

2) Allowing EvGo to manage it with a 4 year maintenance program.  This probably requires (no one knows for sure since I am unaware of any dealer anywhere taking this option) an Evgo subscription which costs (in some areas) $4.95 to connect and 20 cents per kwh

3) Allowing Chargepoint to manage it with a one year maintenance program and allowing the dealership to set pricing

Now Magic Nissan is offering free charging to its customers and I have reached out to Oly Nissan to see if they will be doing the same. I wont charge there if they are not simply because they are so close to my house, I would only charge to grab a boost enough to make it home.  So probably wont pay to get a few kwh.

**UPDATE** did some email with Steve at Oly Nissan and its still free for customers to charge and the service dept will be issuing special cards for us.  better to use the card I already have but if it works, I guess I cant complain!

2 comments:

  1. Our local Nissan dealer has turned away a LEAF driver from charging there solely because he bought his LEAF at another location. They had no real policy, so when I pressed for one, they came back with this crap: only LEAF customers from *that* store would be allowed to charge for free. Now I wish I never asked, but I didn't want people crawling in on 5% state of charge only to be turned away...

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    1. that would suck . AFAIK, all dealers here still allow anyone to charge and most seem to be adopting a $3 fee for LEAFs from other dealerships which is more than a fair price although I much prefer it be by time since that is the whole point to the fast charger's very existence.

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