Electric Vehicle Shopper Documents Difficult Dealership Experience

A recent article on CleanTechnica profiled the experience one man had trying to purchase a Nissan Leaf earlier this year. The man writing the article, Chris Dragon, wrote about his excitement in tracking down the 2016 Nissan Leaf. Dragon said he put his information on a list to be notified by both Nissan and a local dealer when the new Leaf was available and neither one contacted him. In his article, he explains how it seems like neither Nissan or its dealers are excited about selling the newest version of the electric Leaf.

Dragon explained he contacted a local Nissan dealer based on a referral. Chris sent the dealer an email asking about the 2016 Leaf, however, he didn’t receive a direct response answer to his questions – instead he received emails about other vehicles. Dragon further detailed in his report the struggles he had when he went to dealerships looking for a 2016 Leaf. In his account, Dragon found dealership staff to be seemingly unable or unwilling to help him purchase a 2016 Leaf. Two of the issues Chris highlighted were lack of knowledge of the new vehicle (such as what made the newer model different i.e., 25% more range) and in one instance getting the run around with staff reportedly saying the “Leaf expert,” was at lunch, at 5 p.m.

Dragon went on to explain his research into Nissan advertising via YouTube. On the Nissan YouTube channel, the Leaf ad was reportedly more difficult to find was significantly less popular than the Nissan Altima or Titan commercials. Dragon also pointed to Tesla vehicles outselling Nissan Leafs, despite costing more than double. Chris ended his article by adding that he hopes Nissan will focus more on EV investment and marketing in the future.

What has your experience been like selling electric vehicles? How do you think automakers such as Nissan prioritize lower production EVs like the Leaf when it comes to sales and marketing efforts verses a highly popular vehicle such as the Altima or Titan?