Do (or should) Toyota dealers provide courtesy charging for Toyota Primes and Plug-ins?

@bisco Cars, everyone wants um!
Dealers like to sell um!
Mechanics like to fix um?

It's hard to imagine what it would be like to keep track of the differences in just one model,
for 3 generations, when working on them in a shop.
Than multiply that by however many models a dealer sells.

Than a new gen comes out and the old dealer tools can't always access all the new features.
Who gets blamed?

 

i'm not following you, are you saying that owning a dealership is so onerous, that no one wants to anymore?

 

I'm not following how you could not be following. It's looks fairly clear to me. It's a dealership, maybe you call it something else?

 

Ours doesnt I dont believe which is kind of crap right? We are in North Florida and not the most foward thinking area for hybrids and plug ins.

 

Yeah I agree, Hybrids are definitely suited to certain types of climates and road conditions to get close to EPA rated performance.

For example PiP's were not sold in Arizona when I leased mine in 2014 due to the intense heat and fears of early traction pack degradation from overheating.

There is also at the present level of hybrid efficiency a diminishing value returned as the size of the vehicle increases.
Oh course Honda and Cadillac will argue their hybrid implementations show great promise for the future.

I've only seen one other prime ( besides the ones on the dealers lot ) and I've only within a week or two noticed the difference between a prime and a regular prius from the front.

sorry about how disjointed this post is - and I doubt there is anywhere that is a hotbed of hybrid activity.

 

Dealer policies regarding their charging stations seem to be changing daily, here in Socal. Most stations, dealer or otherwise now require a fee for charging, which is reasonable to me. The problem I have with the Norm Reeves dealerships is their $5 & $10 fees for charging!! Ironically they sell almost NO EV cars of any kind. I haven't tried Toyota dealers, besides my service dealer, Toyota Place, which was glad to provide some charge while the Prime was in service. I still say that the huge numbers of parks in our area should be encouraged to provide charging stations; what a wonderful, practical, way to enhance our Plug-in experience. Other than Walgreens, we find very few shopping centers (notably Target, Costco, Home Depot, etc.) who offer any charging facilities at all. That's dumb!

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AChoiredTaste.com

 

You would think that dealers would be smart enough to figure out the positive marketing possibilities of having even paid charging stations on their properties, to attract prospective customers to hang around and talk cars while they're there for an hour or more. You would think dealers would be smart enough to perhaps lower the charging fee to a somewhat reasonable amount to attract prospective customers at all. Instead, a $10 fee might just piss the prospective customer off so much that they'll never decide to connect once they find out what the ridiculous fee actually is, drive away in a huff and tell everyone they know not to ever visit that dealer. "Customer amenities" like that is more giving the middle finger to the next generation of car buyers. This think will sort out the dealers that will survive into the paradigm shift and those that will go extinct and become part of the awefull distasteful stealership past. Yeah, and too bad for them.

 

That's exactly how I felt; never going to them again; didn't even want to talk to any of them, and it made me want to "plug them", so everyone knows how bad they are. They're Honda and VW, firms that are not yet seriously into EV's, or hybrid plug-ins. With hostile customer treatment like that, they'll have a tough time winning sales.


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AChoiredTaste.com

 

P.S. I got more mad at that dealer you mentioned and strengthened my tone above.

 

I agree, but I also am amazed at how the public has come to accept putting a dollar or two into a machine to get compressed air to inflate a low tire.

Of course, in the old days, gas stations had mechanics using air tools so there was virtually no marginal cost to provide a small amount of compressed air for customer convenience and safety.

Makes one wonder how the cost of providing convenience charging to customers compares with the dollars many dealers spend on lighting their lots to full daylight brilliance 24/7.

 

Yeah dealers do have to keep "daylight bright" lighting often to deter night time criminal activity on their lots. It makes me think that they really could offer "free charging" like I've seen in several locations, they could then charge high fees after a set amount of time. This would discourage "Charge Hogs". I've seen several pay charging stations that do this now.
The other thing I would do if I was ChargePoint or one of these other charger vendors, is to develop a system where they would monitor unplugged parked cars (notably ICE cars) at charging stations. These cars would get towed away, at owner's expense. Of course proper signage would have to be installed notifying potential violators. You heard it here first!!

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AChoiredTaste.com

 

On matters of corporate strategy and policy, the relationship between auto companies and their dealers is not always clear cut. As odd as it might sound, it can be easier for a huge corporation to make sweeping strategic changes than to get an old-school owner of a small dealership to alter his ways.

Before painting VW with a broad brush, be aware that they're making a major commitment to deploying public charging stations throughout the U.S. Recently they announced an arrangement with Walmart which will see from 4 to 14 new L2/L3 charging stations located at each of over 100 Walmart store parking areas. This is part of a broader project by VW's Electrify America unit to install 2,000 chargers at nearly 500 charging station locations across the country by June 2019.

See this recent Engadget story: VW pours $300 million into a national EV charging network

 

It's not like VW had a whole lot of choice.

 

I absolutely agree that VW is not the culprit here, it is that particular dealership Norm Reeves. Both their VW and Honda stores charge these heinous fees. On the other hand Cardinale VW, in Corona offers free charging!

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AChoiredTaste.com

 

When my wife picked up our second Prime in Providence RI a couple weeks ago, she complained to the dealer that the battery was not fully charged. Later, the salesperson called me to say he brought this up at a recent sales meeting and they plan to now charge the Primes before delivery. They are working on putting some charging stations in. Of course, this was the same call where he asked to be rated "Exceptional" in the Toyota Survey.

I once asked the dealer in Kirkland WA (where we get the included servicing performed) if they could charge the car after servicing it, and the service manager told me after inquiring, that the two (pay) charging stations in their parking lot are not yet functional.

I imagine most dealerships don't have 110V outlets in their parking lots, nor enough charging ports for their inventory of 10 to 20 Primes. Also, remember that Toyota does not yet have any full BEV cars that require a charging station.

 

Up here I have yet to see a Prime on the road.

In the last 6 months I have started to see about 1 gen IV a month on the road.

Prius v’s are still much more common than either of the aforementioned however.

 

After using the Plug Share and Charge Hub apps, I'm finding that quite a few Nissan dealers offer free level 2 charging for anyone who wants it. They do ask that Nissan Leafs will have priority, which makes sense.

 

1. Not in my area.

2. I think so as Chevy dealers that sell PHEV have to have a charger. AT the Same time NO. It could make service cost higher and Toyota already takes your money for a full tank of gas. U don't think that they wouldn't for electricity

 

I had such a bad experience
( possibly half my fault, for not trading my pip for a leaf that day )
at a local dealers sales floor, I wouldn't go anywhere near another dealers charger(s).
It's just not worth to me the possibility of a similar repeat experience.

 

The Chevy dealer that I go by on the way to work in the morning, usually has a Leaf sitting there charging.