By Jay Ramey, Crain News Service
DETROIT (July 14, 2014) — Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. is seeking to give buyers of its Leaf electric vehicle (EV) a little more range confidence.
The car maker is offering, through its “No Charge to Charge” program, free charging at eligible public stations.
Buyers who bought a Leaf after April 1 will receive free access to more than 2,600 charging stations and more than 200 quick chargers with ChargePoint, Blink, CarCharging, AeroVironment, and NRG eVgo., accessible via an EZ-Charge card.
Finding a station will be breeze as well, as buyers will be able to locate participating stations on EZ-Charge.com and PlugShare.com, or via the PlugShare smartphone app—the latter being available on phones and devices running Android or iOS.
“Free charging is a great way for Nissan and our charging partners to make Leaf an unbeatable value for the average American driver,” said Brendan Jones, director, Nissan Electric Vehicle Sales and Infrastructure. “The popularity of ‘No Charge to Charge' since our April announcement shows that public charging spurs range confidence and additional Leaf sales.”
Interested in finding out more about EVs? Check out the special section—“Servicing Hybrids and Natural Gas Vehicles”—in the July 7 print edition of Tire Business, and at tirebusiness.com.
For now, the “No Charge to Charge” programs will be available in just 10 regional markets including: San Francisco; Sacramento, Calif.; San Diego; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; Phoenix; Dallas-Ft. Worth; Houston; Washington, D.C.; and Nashville, Tenn., where Nissan North America is based. Nissan said the plan is to expand the program to 15 other regional markets over the next year, suggesting that the “No Charge to Charge” incentive program might be offered for more than a few months.
