Nissan refuses to sell to customers who 'fail test

[Deleted]

finance.ninemsn.com.au/newsbusiness/8472099/nissan-refuses-to-sell-to-customers-who-fail-test


Nissan is refusing to sell its new electric car to customers it deems "unsuitable". Buyers of the Japanese carmaker's new Leaf model, which goes on sale June 1, first have to answer a series of questions and have their home assessed, The Age reports.

A number of applicants have already failed the two-stage test.

The questions ask about the customer's daily commute and the location where the car would be kept.

Then Nissan's partner Origin Energy inspects their homes to assess if they can support electric car charging facilities.

If customers clear Nissan's hurdles they will be offered The Leaf for $51,500, which includes a recharging cable but not a wall-mounted recharge station.

A recharging station will add at least $2,700 to the vehicle's price, depending on where it is installed.

Nissan Australia model line manager James Staveley said 100 customers had already been approved with another 100 still undergoing assessment.

He said some potential customers were deemed "unsuitable" because they didn't have off-street parking, which Nissan considers essential for safe and convenient recharging. Nissan said it will retain the selection criteria after initial supply restraints are overcome.

[druidp]

And yet somehow I bet they'll do just fine - this seems elitist enough to make people want to strive for the status. "I passed the Nissan Leaf qualifications... pooh on you who did not!"

Ah, and that reminds of me of the Pious on South Park. "Theeeeeeeenks!"

[y4m]

I think it's smart customer service. They aren't selling to people they expect won't have a good experience based on their circumstances.

[pixy0stix]

They're already designing charging stations in town here. Some have already been installed.

[mominatrix]

There are a tin of them out here... Washington is a pilot state for them.

...and they sell for way less than the price in the article.

I get it, though... You absolutely need a charging station. How would to do that if you don't have off street parking?



Sent from my HTC Glacier using ProBoards

[WOT?*]

I was shocked to see that $50K plus price too. They're going for less than $30K starting around here.

We won't qualify, I don't think. Too far into the burbs for a reasonable commute downtown. There are a lot of them closer in, though. Between the Leaf and the SmartCar (and the bicyclists), I'm afraid to drive The Behemoth through town sometimes.

[Deleted]

May 23, 2012 0:40:56 GMT -5 mominatrix said:

There are a tin of them out here... Washington is a pilot state for them.

...and they sell for way less than the price in the article.

I get it, though... You absolutely need a charging station. How would to do that if you don't have off street parking?



Sent from my HTC Glacier using ProBoards

Sorry I should have put Aust/Oz in the title...we pay alot more for things here

[guest]

The off road parking requirement sounds like a safety concern as well. If someone crashes into the parked car as is recharging, there may be a risk of electrocution maybe.

I'm going to let them go around for awhile and see how they do before I think about getting one.

[Deleted]

there are tonnes of them here, but they all belong to Nissan workers.

[IIOY]

Every car company should do this and the test need only consist of one question: Do you drive like an asshole? Yes? No car for you!

[ttt]

I think that price is Australian dollars, not USD.

[pamela]

It may sound elitist, but it's probably necessary. Especially with reports of cars catching fire in garages lately, it's smart for the company selling the vehicle to make sure the house can support the electrical draw that charging the battery requires.

The commute part it is probably just to avoid a bad reputation when people's cars die on the way to work because they didn't follow the manfucturer guidance on range.

[doctorwho]

It sounds reasonable to me. Can you charge it and how far are you going are the biggest obstacles.

[charminglife]

I don't have a huge problem with this. Yeah, calling it a 'test' is dumb, but they want people to be happy with their product and not come complaining to Nissan (or to their friends) about how the car sucks cause it never gets a chance to charge.

[penguingrrl]

Those all sound like reasonable requirements to me. It will look really bad if one if (the?) the first electric cars is seen dead on the road all over. Even though it will have been user error, it will turn people off to buying them and delay our move away from oil.

[ringstrue]

So you just get a cable? How does that work? Is that just to connect your car to an outlet?

[GailGoldie]

i can't imagine someone would attempt to buy it if they didn't have a proper charging station (available) to them.... don't people research the car before going out to buy one and realize they can't use it properly if they don't? I guess not... and lots of idiots are trying to buy this car.

I think it's smart - and brilliant creating more status (even though it's silly status)

[mominatrix]

May 23, 2012 8:28:04 GMT -5 ringstrue said:

So you just get a cable? How does that work? Is that just to connect your car to an outlet?

You have to get an outlet installed. Here, they have a deal with an electrical company, but you pay for it separately, because you can choose different models.

home charging stations use 220, like an electric clothes dryer. The car comes with a box you can plug into a standard outlet, to recharge if you're on the road, but they really aren't for everyday use.

The other thing is that, if I'm remembering correctly, there are big tax incentives for buying electric... Here, the sales tax on the car is waived, plus there are federal tax credits for some good amount when you buy these cars AND when you install the charger.

Sent from my HTC Glacier using ProBoards... so excuse the autocorrect.

[ringstrue]

May 23, 2012 8:43:03 GMT -5 mominatrix said:

May 23, 2012 8:28:04 GMT -5 ringstrue said:

So you just get a cable? How does that work? Is that just to connect your car to an outlet?

You have to get an outlet installed. Here, they have a deal with an electrical company, but you pay for it separately, because you can choose different models.

home charging stations use 220, like an electric clothes dryer. The car comes with a box you can plug into a standard outlet, to recharge if you're on the road, but they really aren't for everyday use.

The other thing is that, if I'm remembering correctly, there are big tax incentives for buying electric... Here, the sales tax on the car is waived, plus there are federal tax credits for some good amount when you buy these cars AND when you install the charger.

Sent from my HTC Glacier using ProBoards... so excuse the autocorrect.

That's so cool. I wish they do something like that here soon. Every time I think I could go buy a new car its just not possible for us to consider electric/hybrid.

[Deleted]

Is it really a lot cleaner to power a car via electricity than gasoline when so much of our electricity comes from burning coal? It seems to me it's just shifting the pollution from the tailpipe to the coal plant.

[pixy0stix]

May 23, 2012 9:28:54 GMT -5 @redbellpeppers said:

Is it really a lot cleaner to power a car via electricity than gasoline when so much of our electricity comes from burning coal? It seems to me it's just shifting the pollution from the tailpipe to the coal plant.

I'm stealing this from a physics forum, but it answers your questions.

It can also be seen from this DOE web site:
www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electri....html#electric
that burning coal to generate electricity creates about 2 pounds of CO2 per kilowatt hour. Multiplying by 4 kWh, this renders about 8 pounds of CO2 per EG. By comparison, according to this EPA web site:
www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/420f05001.htm
burning gasoline generates approximately 20 pounds of CO2 per gallon; roughly double the amount.

Source: www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=238787

[secretlyevil]

Since when is Nissan Japanese? Did I know this? Maybe I did. I thought they were German. I can't get past this first point. So H and I only drive Japanese? Huh.

Passing the test is sort of funny and of course I first thought - elitist snob! After my initial drain dump about Nissan = Japanese.

[Deleted]

May 23, 2012 9:37:21 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

May 23, 2012 9:28:54 GMT -5 @redbellpeppers said:

Is it really a lot cleaner to power a car via electricity than gasoline when so much of our electricity comes from burning coal? It seems to me it's just shifting the pollution from the tailpipe to the coal plant.

I'm stealing this from a physics forum, but it answers your questions.

It can also be seen from this DOE web site:
www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electri....html#electric
that burning coal to generate electricity creates about 2 pounds of CO2 per kilowatt hour. Multiplying by 4 kWh, this renders about 8 pounds of CO2 per EG. By comparison, according to this EPA web site:
www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/420f05001.htm
burning gasoline generates approximately 20 pounds of CO2 per gallon; roughly double the amount.

Source: www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=238787

Fascinating! Thanks for doing the math for me.

[pixy0stix]

May 23, 2012 9:38:34 GMT -5 @redbellpeppers said:

Fascinating! Thanks for doing the math for me.

I didn't do it. I understand what they're talking about there, but doing the actual calculations would make my head spin.

[mcgee]

A friend just bought a Leaf, and they LOVE it. They got a better deal on it in San Antonio than they did in Austin, so they bought it there, drove halfway, stopped at a shopping mall where there were public places to charge the car, had lunch and browsed around for a bit while the car charged and then drove home. Her husband uses the car to commute from the suburbs into downtown Austin, and she says they've saving a ton of money on gas each month. She's a photographer, and she uses the car on the weekends going to photoshoots. She and her DH are both really anal about finances, and they've figured out their savings to the penny... and yes, she said that electricity-wise, it's equivalent to using the dryer.

[LWoods]

So if one has a dryer outlet but no dryer can the vehicle be plugged in to that? This would explain the random extension cord coming out of the window of an apartment nearby.

[NitaX]

May 23, 2012 9:04:28 GMT -5 ringstrue said:

That's so cool. I wish they do something like that here soon. Every time I think I could go buy a new car its just not possible for us to consider electric/hybrid.

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, are you just talking about an electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle. They are two separate things. If you are talking about an electric vehicle, I get it. My city doesn't have many charging stations available. So for me, a Leaf wouldn't be a very good purchase.

But, we do both have Honda Insights and I LOVE my car. I commute 26 miles round trip to work, and I can easily go 9-10 days without having to fill up (this includes all of my other running of kids back and forth, and trips across town to church which is about 8-9 miles from my job). My H works from home and may fill up once a month.

My gas consumption was immediately cut in half. I paid on average about $180-200 a month in gas with my old car (21-23 mpg). Now, I pay $80-$90 in fuel each month. I filled up this morning for $27. As my grandfather would say, you can't beat that with a hammer and a nail.

My comments on the article, I see no problem with Nissan's strategy. No use in people paying for a car and not being able to get proper utilization from it.

[mominatrix]

May 23, 2012 9:37:21 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

May 23, 2012 9:28:54 GMT -5 @redbellpeppers said:

Is it really a lot cleaner to power a car via electricity than gasoline when so much of our electricity comes from burning coal? It seems to me it's just shifting the pollution from the tailpipe to the coal plant.

I'm stealing this from a physics forum, but it answers your questions.

It can also be seen from this DOE web site:
www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electri....html#electric
that burning coal to generate electricity creates about 2 pounds of CO2 per kilowatt hour. Multiplying by 4 kWh, this renders about 8 pounds of CO2 per EG. By comparison, according to this EPA web site:
www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/420f05001.htm
burning gasoline generates approximately 20 pounds of CO2 per gallon; roughly double the amount.

Source: www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=238787

the other thing is that not all electric power comes from coal.

One of the reasons why everybody here is all hot on the leaf is that a huge percentage of our electric power comes from hydro. So, no "tailpipe" at all, even miles and miles away.

[Deleted]

May 23, 2012 10:47:07 GMT -5 mominatrix said:

the other thing is that not all electric power comes from coal.

Of course it doesn't, but 2/3 of electricity in the U.S. comes from coal or natural gas. www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_1_1

[Deleted]

May 23, 2012 10:56:38 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

May 23, 2012 5:43:37 GMT -5 IIOY said:

Every car company should do this and the test need only consist of one question: Do you drive like an asshole? Yes? No car for you!

Two part test:

part two: Do you park like an asshole. Yes? No car for you.

No cars at my university! :Y: