Love that wood veneer paneling ...

Last night, a Bloomberg headline read, Nissan Aggravates Customers Trying to Turn Over a New Leaf. Today it reads, Nissan Customers Angry Trying to Turn New Leaf, but Nissan is only off the hook in the headline:

Nissan Motor Co. is aggravating the customers it needs most.

Nissan, which wants to become the top seller of electric cars, repeatedly delayed deliveries to some U.S. buyers who reserved the first 20,000 Leaf plug-in hatchbacks, according to interviews with customers. They said Nissan unexpectedly dropped some from the waiting list temporarily, asking that they reapply if they couldn’t prove they’d arranged installation of home-charging units that can cost more than $2,000.

Besides the frustration of having to wait for delivery - to which contemporary Americans are not accustomed - and pay installation charges towards a car with no fixed delivery date, California customers fear that the funding for the state's $5,000 tax credit will be halved or even end in July.

Naturally this story is being blogged on all the car sites, and at TTAC, commenter Dhanson865 gripes that Nissan only wants to ensure that customers won't find a cheaper way to install the 240V home charger:

1. The car comes with a 120V charger so you don’t have to buy the $2000 wall charger installation to use the car.

2. The $2000 is for an inspection, installation, and a ~$700 charger plus a 6″ power cord that doesn’t cost more than a couple of bucks. Some leaf purchasers were planning to buy the car and get a charger from someone other than Nissan to save hundreds of dollars or even thousands of dollars for overpriced electrical work/instillation charges. For example there is no discount on the installation if all they have to do is screw it to the wall and plug in a power cord vs the more costly setting up a new breaker box, running cable down the side of a house, cutting through a wall, etc.

3.There is a service that will convert your 120V charger to a 120/240V charger for a reasonable fee saving you more than you would buying a wall charger.

Nissan stopping a waiting list member from buying the car can only mean they are trying to protect the income that would go to the L2 charger manufacturer, the installers, and/or any kickback from them.

Nissan may also be worried about improperly installed chargers. A Volt was recently destroyed in a garage fire, and though the owner's homemade EV was more likely at fault, the image of a burning garage is not what EV makers want associated with their products.