Just a Vent about Nissan dealers, chargers & ICED

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tigger19687

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2015
Messages
559
Location
MA
There is a dealer on Cape Cod ICE ALL 3 chargers in the front of his dealership.
I emailed the manager today about it and how I was told that they would be open/accessible/and not ICED.

Here is my email
"Good day. I am writing you about your EV chargers.

I have emailed in the past about being able to use the chargers and asked if they would be blocked by other Dealer vehicles. I was told that they would not be blocked at any time of day, that they were all working and anyone can use them. That is NOT the case when I went by Last night (Sunday 6-21-15) and NEEDED desperately to charge.
My Father is elderly and lives on the Cape. In order for me to get to him to take care of him I need to charge at your station.
I plotted my route very carefully and was very disappointed that your chargers were all blocked by ICE vehicles .. not even other Leaf's !! I almost needed to be towed :(
Is this the way it always is ? I have gone by before in someone's car and noticed it was blocked then too.
I am trying to find out how EV friendly you are at this dealership.
Thank you for letting me vent"

his response ..... "There is a charger to the rear of the building… always able to use."
That's it, no apology, not that I thought I would get one.
Doesn't sound like they are too EV friendly :(

FYI, I was not in my EV, I was in my F-350 because I have not made the journey down yet... because of chargers like this being blocked


edit : L2 charger .. just needed a little jump to make sure i had enough juice
 
You didn't mention whether it was the CHAdeMO station or L2 EVSE that was blocked. Around the Seattle area it is common for the L2 to be inaccessible after hours, but we EV advocates have prevailed on most Nissan dealers to make the CHAdeMO stations accessible 24/7. L2 isn't very useful in the middle of a road trip, and dealers are rarely within walking distance of a destination that is worthy of several hours of my time (the dealerships themselves being the destination least of all worthy of extra hours).
If you don't have an active local chapter of the Electric Auto Association, Sierra Club, or Plug In America, perhaps the national offices would be willing to reach out on your behalf...
 
I was wondering when someone would start this thread. I'm sure most of us have stories involving Nissan.

My own account was posted in my thread "Road Trip... Sort of." I'll repeat it here.

One of the first quick chargers in my area was the Nissan dealer in Morgantown, WV. I called them and verified access to the chargers. The lady I talked to went and checked with someone else at the dealer and all was good. I can use it.

A couple of weeks later, we take a trip to Morgantown. I arrive at the dealer, wedge my way into the spot for the quick charger (Mustang nearly blocked it), and start charging. A salesman comes out and asked if my car was in on dealer trade. I said no, just stopping for a charge, and stated I called ahead and verified that I could. He disappears, then comes back a few minutes later and says in a rather rude way that I can't charge and will have to leave, the station isn't public. Luckily, the quick charger was considerably faster than the salesman and I was nearly done anyway. So, we hand back the LEAF brochure we were flipping through (wouldn't buy one anyway, not from them), unplug, and peel out of the lot. We continue on our day and later stop by the Mitsubishi dealer, the one where I bought Bear. I plug into level 2 after catching one of the service guys to move their two i-MiEVs away from the stations, and there we sit for two and a half hours. I get enough charge to where I should be able to get home and leave. We decide to stop back at the Nissan dealer (as it was now an hour past closing) and try the quick charger again. Now, there are signs on it that say to please pay inside, and the emergency stop was pressed. Well, the doors are locked and the E stop is easy to figure out, so I plug in and grab a few kWh's. Don't worry. I paid, about one penny.

I had a feeling there'd be issues as soon as I pulled in the lot. Everybody there was giving us dirty looks.
 
I have a mixed perspective on the issue of charging our i-MiEV at non-Mitsu dealerships.

On the one hand, a progressive-thinking dealership should welcome all-comers, as it simply means more boots on the ground in their facility. If we charge there, we should at least do them the courtesy of looking over their models and simply become better-educated ourselves with respect to all the features of the latest Leaf or other brand. I've talked a couple of friends into buying Leafs simply because they needed five-seaters.

On the other hand, it's the dealer's EVSE and they're paying for the kWh (although not true at some of the local dealerships around here, as their ChargePoint is programmed to charge $$ when a non-dealer's swipe card is used). Also, many dealerships are starved for space and if they want to ICE their own station, that's also their prerogative.

I checked out Cape Cod on PlugShare and see that this particular dealership is indeed in a spot with no other stations close around. What I would do in this situation is call up the manager in advance, explain the situation, and ask if they can accommodate me - giving them a range of times. I'd be sure to get the manager's name so when I arrived I could "name drop" that I had advance permission if I needed to ask to get an car moved.

In this scenario, tigger19687, it sounds as though they have yet another charging station out back which will do the job.

In the very early days here in Silicon Valley one particular Nissan dealer refused to allow Leafs to charge that had not been purchased from them - the instantaneous uproar and condemnation still leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth about that dealership. I would expect that all manufacturers' corporate policy at this point in time is to ask the dealers to be as permissive as possible. I've never been refused charging at any of the dealerships I've visited - Nissan, Fiat, VW, MBZ, Kia, …

So, tigger19687, what is your Plan B and Plan C for charging when you take your i-MiEV to visit your dad? Very long extension cord from your father's home? It does look as though you have plenty of charging stations along the way, even though they're all L2.
 
In my neck of the woods, just about all 'public' EVSE's listed on PlugShare are the Nissan dealerships - There are virtually no other EVSE's available to the public anywhere

Unfortunately, calling the two dealers nearest to me to find out the status and availability to the public of the EVSE's, no one at either dealer knew anything about them being listed on PlugShare as 'public' charge points - Both dealerships had to check with someone who wasn't present when I called about the possibility of recharging anything other than a Leaf. Both promised to get back with me in a day or two with the answer - Neither one did. When I called again a week or so later, I was told that the EVSE's were there only for people with Leafs to use . . . . in other words, they were not 'public'

My biggest beef is with whoever runs PlugShare - What good is their list if they list 'public' charge points without actually talking to someone at the location to make sure thay are actually 'public'??

On a related topic - Whoever said "What good is an iMiEV if you can't repeatedly recharge it and drive 3 or 4 hundred miles in a day?" I own two of them, drive them everyday and in more than 3 years, I've never put even a dimes worth of electricity into either of them anywhere except in my garage. I find them very useful cars for about 95% of the driving we've done over the last 3 years

Don
 
On the other hand, we had a GREAT experience charging at Ziegler Nissan near Gurnee Illinois north of Chicago. We pulled in to their Chargepoint Chademo, and it didn't work. No amount of resetting it with help from them could get it to work. They offered us the use of their Aerovironment L2 charger. Then, they encouraged us to relax in their customer lounge
While we recharged. Everyone was nice, good TV and coffee in the lounge, They showed us where the vending machines are. Nice people, nice dealership. Impressive.
 
Yes, I understand many (most) Nissan dealerships are quite accommodating. I just wish the info presented on the PlugShare website better reflected that. Usually, if a number of EV'ers have had good experiences at a particular dealership, they write a little blurb praising that dealership and that makes the website much more informative

Don
 
I agree. Plugshare is essential for travel, but is far from accurate. Essential to read the comments and to call ahead. Always have a plan B if your charger turns out to be broken or nonexistent.
 
I took a Saturday afternoon to drive around a town near me do that I could check out their chargers and post a little blurb about each one. Most had not been updated for months, if not a year.
I wanted to go further but it was starting to get dark.
I have already posted for each plug near my house and a few north.

Love Plugshare, more accurate, EASY to use and it doesn't get hung up on my phone while loading etc... C.P. app sucks and there is no blurbs on any of the locations. I left one and then was like "why bother"
 
Believe me, Plugshare is much more reliable than others I've tried.

That being said, it is a community effort. I don't like how many Nissan dealers were auto-added, I've caught a couple that were on there and didn't even sell the LEAF or have charging stations. It is up to the users for the most part to make sure the stations listed are accurate and detailed.
 
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