The New Wave of Nissan LEAF Sales

Spreading across the country

Nissan LEAF sales are surging, and it’s no longer just a West Coast phenomenon.

With Nissan LEAF sales in the United States up by 317% year-over-year since the launch of the enhanced 2013 model in March, Nissan is seeing demand for electric vehicles expand significantly outside the traditional West Coast stronghold.

Now new-wave markets across the country are making the mark, including Atlanta, which is now #3 on the sales charts.

“LEAF always has sold well on the West Coast for a number of reasons — state tax incentives that stack on top of federal, High-Occupancy Vehicle and High-Occupancy Toll access, environmental mindedness, a concentration of early adopters, and an EV culture and enthusiasm that dates back to some of the earliest EV experiments before Nissan took them mass-market,” said Erik Gottfried, Nissan director of EV Sales and Marketing. “In fact, for several months LEAF has been a top-performing vehicle in the Nissan portfolio in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco.”

Atlanta has nabbed its high rank thanks to a number of factors, including congested local traffic conditions where LEAF performs well, state incentives, and High-Occupancy Vehicle and High-Occupancy Toll access.

“Those combined factors result in a real lifestyle change that puts time back in your day and greatly facilitates personal mobility,” said Brendan Jones, director of EV Infrastructure Strategy for Nissan. Georgia has a tax credit worth up to $5,000 for zero-emissions vehicles. In Atlanta, Nissan workplace outreach has resulted in more than 100 LEAF sales to Southern Company employees. 

Courtesy of NNANET 

Inconsiderate Carbon Expellers and EV drivers.

The Mitsubishi MiEV driver chooses not to pay for parking nor charge up
the vehicle, displacing other EV drivers who might legitimately need
 that  EV charging space.

I am elitist. Just kidding. Driving the Leaf has forced me to plan things more carefully and effectively. So today I write my rant about how other people's in-considerations can possibly ruin your day or your plan. This is nothing new but pertaining to driving an Electric Vehicle or EV, all drivers(EV drivers included) need to have a conscience about how they can displace EV drivers who need to legitimately charge up their cars.

A Chevy Cobalt occupying a
charging station. I almost put a
note on the car but instead called
the property owners. The person
received a ticket.

On my days off from work, I charge one block from my home after I drop my kid off to school. I take that opportunity to charge up so I can make another round trip to pick her up and make my way back home again. She goes to school in another town. If there is another vehicle parked where I need to charge that is non-electric or an EV just using that space to park but not charge to get a free parking pass, I'm going to nip it the bud by calling the property owners. You will receive a parking ticket.
The charging stations are there for a reason. The company that put those stations there, installed the chargers to make money. EV drivers are supposed to use these stations to power up obviously. It would never occur to me to park at a gas station pump with my Leaf displacing people who need to get gas while I go eat an AM/PM Hamburger for 3 hours so
KNOCK THAT CRAP OFF!

Learning Curves, Love and RSS Feeds.

I have over 2500 miles on the Leaf now. I have settled in. Yes, there is a learning curve to the Leaf. You have to learn it's limitations. You have to learn to love this car, and, I do. You have to experiment and push it's limits. Luckily it comes with 24 hour "No Cost" roadside assistance for three years. If your out in the middle of nowhere and you've drained your battery, Badda Bing, Badda Boom, it's taken care of, out comes the truck to pick you up. I must say, I've never pushed it so hard to where I thought I'd be in trouble. I have had about 6 miles of range left on after a commute.  The woman's voice emanating from the Leaf's speakers kept suggesting with full fledged maps via the navigation system to where the nearest charging station was. I just happened to be near one which is exactly one block from where I live.

There is an app for smartphones called PlugShare. The app allows you to share your home charger with other EV drivers or as a driver of an EV, charge at various locations not necessarily listed on the Leaf's navigation system. Walgreens seems to have level 2, 240v chargers available for public use at no cost. These do not show up on the navigation system but show in the PlugShare App.

There are no Level 2 Chargers available in Gig Harbor Washington for public use which makes me mad. What's up Gig Harbor? There are only two available via the Plugshare App listed in Gig Harbor. One is located on a light pole at a strip mall parking lot and it is only a Level 1 or 110v plug outlet. I plugged in here for an hour while taking my daughter to the Orthodontist and sipping drinks at Starbucks while she did her homework. The other one in Gig Harbor is listed on the Plugshare App as a Level 2 Charger courtesy of a man named Robert. It is at his house and you have to let him know that you are coming with his phone number listed because the charger is in his garage.
RSS Feeds (Really Simple Syndication) are families of web feed formats or text from your favorite websites that can be downloaded into the Leafs Navigation System through CarWings and you can enjoy your favorite topics, news or just about anything you can imagine. ESPN, CNN, Facebook, Yahoo, Popular Science are just a few that I have loaded. These are updated as you specify. I have have listened to these feeds but sometimes I have to laugh. The woman's voice is robotic and monotonous as you can imagine plus, she is very hard to understand at times.
Overall, I have grown to love the Leaf. Others may be not so convinced as the range anxiety might be contagious but careful planing for extended trips can alleviate some of the stresses involved.