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

how you going to test the L2 charging without an L2?

 

Having L2 charging at any modern dealership should be considered essential to the business, even if clients are charged a "fair" price. All EV affected cars need to have a full charge at delivery as part of the PDI (Pre Delivery Inspection). Remember post purchase surveys are very common now, so with informed purchasers commenting on this and other issues, savvy dealers will provide this service uniformly.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
AChoiredTaste.com

 

I bought my Prius Prime Advanced in upstate New York a week ago Friday and they had a charging station at the dealership. Assume it was a lvl 2. It came with full tank of gas and a partially charged battery. I was so excited, I didn’t check the level of EV charge, but glad they had a charging station there. Unsure if they would top off ev range during scheduled maintenance, however.

 

I visited my selling dealer a couple weeks ago for my first free oil change and tire rotation, prior to my Florida trip. I asked my saleslady about whether they have considered an L2 setup somewhere for the new increasing Prime sales. She told me that they will now charge up a new Prime before delivery if they are asked. "What are they using to do that?" She said "that cord that comes with the car."

 

That works, doesn't it?

 

Yeah, so does walking from place to place.
I thought we were an advanced civilization!?

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AChoiredTaste.com

 

Yes, it does work, but I am suggesting that what they do (at my dealer) is less than the bare minimum. If a customer asks, they'll charge it up. Why not for every customer buying a prime?

Then there's Nissan dealers, which often have a set of L2 chargers on their premises for Leaf customers, or anyone else that needs a charge, free (mostly when they're open though). That type of commitment isn't the bare minimum, it is an advantage that brings in drivers and potential customers. I mean what are you going to do while the car charges? Maybe go into the showroom and strike up a conversation with someone? That's just smart business.

 

Yesterday I was driving on I-5 between Seattle and Bellingham. At the Outlet Mall in Burlington, I noticed a sign visible to the freeway that said "Electric Vehicle Charging Station Here". In fact, here it is in Google Maps Streetview:


If outlet malls use chargers to bring in customers, one would think electric car companies could as well....

 

And there's a couple of Leafs sitting there charging up.

 

I bought mine from North Hollywood Toyota in LA and they let me keep it there for 2 hours after I bought it to charge. I came back to drop something off to the sales guy and they let me charge it again. Depends on the dealer I guess.

 

Seriously? Businesses get to write off so many things, lots of it overhead, it really should not be an issue for them imho!

Besides that, many of them get subsidies to put them in....

If you're bringing your vehicle in for service to the dealer, and they want to increase the sales of these vehicles, they should be allowing owners to charge for free; plus most of us would agree to pay to charge our vehicles during the work days if it wasn't inflated cost to do so... but most of us don't even get the option to charge at work, inflated or not...

Plus I know the employees at the dealership are using them all the time...

 

Anyone offering free electric car charging is very likely to be doing because there's a financial advantage to it. Malls would offer it to draw customers in. For dealerships, at present, I think the financial advantage is dubious.

 

The percentage of electric vehicles sold now, in the U.S. is miniscule. Smart dealers will offer charging, whether free or not, in anticipation of the great number of electrified vehicles to come,especially, (God don't strike me down for saying this!) when SUVs and Trucks become generally electrified. Gas stations will have to offer charging, as will dealers, schools, parks, parking lots, malls. People will set up chargers for the convenience of visitors to their homes, etc., etc. Roads will provide inductive charging. The Electric Revolution, she is coming!!

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AChoiredTaste.com

 

i really don't think most dealers care about selling ev's. toyota wants to sell a certain amount for credits, but they can't totally dictate to dealers, only incentivize as they see fit.

 

Like they did for the Volt I test drove across the state line ... They wanted the sale. But I ended up with the Prius Prime Premium - but now I wonder if my driving patterns would have been such that the Volt would have benefitted me more. I guess I'll have to wait another 10 years (or at least I hope this one lasts as long as my Gen 2 Prii have! 2004 Tideland with over 225,000 miles when I gave it to my nephew who is now driving it and very thankful for the milage it gets still getting 40+ mpg! Also still have a 2005 with 93,500 miles getting mid 40+ mpg still as well! Unfortunately though that one was totaled after only 3 weeks and less than 60K miles when a Chevy rear-ended me... you'd be shocked at the damage he did to his big honking 4 by 4... My hubby and son are driving it now instead of their gas guzzling trucks... (although in the winter the trucks are nice to have for a backup in the snow with the 4 wheel drive!)

 

They also make sure of the pressure in all four tires:

 

Well perhaps civilization may yet reach these dealers!!! Inflippingcredible!! Whatever happened to the Mighty CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index) that governed our salespeople's lives here in Southern California when I sold cars for 23 years!! We were lectured constantly about "Proper" demo rides (you could get fired if you didn't do a demo correctly, or skipped the demo) as the most important sales tool. The salesman always had to be sure the sold vehicle was fueled, clean, and was responsible for a COMPLETE demonstration of the vehicle to the purchaser. You took manditory classes on the vehicle features, and we even challenged each other on car facts! We were "straight sell" (no flipping clients to a closer), so that also made a difference. There were several shlock dealers, but most clients knew who they were, and several of the crooked dealership owners went to jail! The manufacturers kept a close tally on the dealership's CSI ratings, and if the dealer didn't measure up, they lost allocation. I don't know what it's like in the whole country, but it sounds like many of you need to get better "service". Thankfully, places like this forum should help promote the good dealers. And no, it's not just about price!

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AChoiredTaste.com

 

When I test drove and bought and received my Prime, it had no charge. After I charged it up and drove it in EV mode, I thought it drove much better on city streets. They would probably sell more cars if they kept the cars charged up (not to mention the advantage of having a satisfied customer that HPrimeAdvanced mentions) .

Note that it costs all of about 60 cents to charge up a Prius prime.

 

I guess the dealer didn't want to cut in on their profits.

 

60 cents is about the cost of 5 customized business cards. And, a dealer wouldn't even need to charge the car to full, as test drives are rarely 30 miles long.