A word of warning to those getting an EVSE installed. Be sure to get an all-inclusive quote from the electrician and check the wording very carefully to be sure you don't pay until the job has passed final inspection. You may not even need one, depending on your usage of the car. For most people, overnight charging on 120 volts is sufficient. I'm going to post a letter I wrote to the USDOE about the nightmare experience I had when I bought my Leaf in 2011. It's long, so I may have to cut it into pieces.
I am writing to alert you to the horrible mismanagement of the EV Project in the San Francisco Bay Area. The incompetence of Ecotality and the dishonesty of its electrician subcontractors has not only resulted in EV purchasers being ripped off, but, more importantly, the goals of the DOE to promote electric vehicles is being thwarted, not forwarded. Although I will set forth my personal financial complaints here, I believe it is important for you to understand them in order to see how the program is counterproductive. Excuse the length, but I don't think you can appreciate the nightmare this project has become without it.
I am a retired FBI agent and attorney who purchased a Nissan Leaf, taking delivery in June 2011. Large motivating factors were a desire to promote energy independence, clean air, and reduction in greenhouse gases. For these reasons I was much in favor of the DOE's EV Project, which I believe shares these goals. As I understood the program the vendor, Ecotality, or Nissan, would pay for $700 of the upgrade from the SV model I originally ordered to the SL-e in order to get the quick charge (440V) port and would also pay $1200 to get a "free" charging unit installed in my garage. I knew I would still have to pay about $1300 for the upgrade to the SL-e and any overage in the cost of installing the charging unit beyond the $1200. Even though I felt reasonably sure I could get by just fine with the Level 1 EVSE and a regular 120V wall plug since I am retired and rarely drive more than 10 miles a day, I was willing to spend the extra money, which I was led to believe would be quite small, so that the DOE could monitor my power usage which would contribute to plans to provide electric charging infrastructure and so forth.
When I applied for the project Ecotality repeatedly assured me that the charging unit should be installed within the $1200 based on my questionnaire answers. I relied on these statements in deciding to upgrade. When it finally came time for the electricians to assess my house for the install I was shocked to receive a quote for $3558 OVER the $1200 paid by Ecotality. The vendor was Sprig Electric in San Jose. This amount was more than the non-subsidized amount quoted by Aerovironment (AV) for the AV brand EVSE, an amount I thought was too high and which I had already turned down. I checked around with other Leaf purchasers and discovered that this amount was much higher than others had been paying for the Blink EVSE, so I complained to Ecotality and asked to be able to get a quote from another vendor. The other electricians I spoke to said they could give me a much better price but were not allowed to do so without the permission of Ecotality or they would be excluded from the program. Ecotality refused to let me do that and instead apparently recontacted Sprig, which then sent me a revised quote for $2256. This was still much higher than I originally anticipated. Not only that, but by this time (months after taking delivery of the Leaf) I was then aware that the Level 1 charging off my 120V plug worked just fine. I did not need the Level 2 charger at all and the Level 3 quick charge (QC) port was useless since there were no QC charging stations in the Bay Area and no near-term plans to install them. Still, I had signed the contract and already received the $700 rebate for the QC port and paid for the upgrade to the SL-e as well, plus I still supported the goals of the EVP, so I reluctantly agreed to pay this amount.
At this point, though, I realized the DOE's approach was deeply flawed. The idea of trying to make the short-range EV's like the Leaf into long-range cars by installing Level 3 chargers may have some merit in the long-term, but it actually misleads the consumer and makes the purchase more expensive. It makes the consumer believe he or she must spend money for expensive electrical system upgrades, which in fact are unnecessary. There is an after-market EVSE that uses an ordinary 220V dryer plug to achieve level 2 charging at home. For about $300 I could have had the same capability for L2 charging that the EV Project gives me and I could have stayed with the SV model. This is what the DOE should be promoting.
Returning to my own situation, it became a total disaster after this. Sprig came and installed the Blink EVSE unit, which works OK, and also installed a new electrical panel, which I did not know they were going to do until the day they showed up for the install. There had been no communication to me about this prior to that. The quote only aid they would install the EVSE. They cut into my stucco wall and made this change and left the stucco around the panel open and exposed to the elements. When they called for the preliminary inspection, the city inspector came and told them they had not properly grounded the new panel and charger and could not leave the wall around the panel open like that. Since the charging unit was working, I gave them partial payment, but held back $300. The situation remained that way for months. As fall approached I became concerned about the rainy weather causing problems at the open wall around the panel and complained to Sprig but nothing happened. So next I complained to Ecotality. They were always cordial and received my complaints but never got back to me. Instead, Sprig then contacted me, apparently prompted by Ecotality, and came out and propped a plastic sheet over my panel. As more time went by I was not satisfied so I complained again to both Sprig and Ecotality. Sprig said they would send someone to seal up the open stucco around the panel. I strongly emphasized that they had better check with the electrician because there was still the grounding work to be done and it may be necessary to have that done first and inspected. Instead they sent out a non-English speaking plasterer who sealed it up. I painted over the new stucco for additional protection. More weeks went by. The grounding wire that had never been connected was coiled on the bathroom floor in the garage's half-bath. There was still no final inspection approved. About that time I received a form email from Heather Clegg-Haman of Ecotality asking for my feedback. Needless to say, I was unhappy and sent a long email detailing all the frustration I had about the project and especially about Sprig. She never responded to me about my complaints, nor did anyone else from Ecotality. Once again, however, Sprig contacted me the next day to arrange for the final inspection. I agreed and the day was set for the following week. The original electrician showed up along with the inspector. The electrician could not understand why the final had been called for since he had not yet grounded the unit. Also, he was not aware that the stucco work had been done. He was able to complete the grounding work before the inspector arrived. When the inspector arrived, he refused to pass the inspection because he could not see whether the stucco work had been done according to code, i.e. with the proper wire mesh and paper underneath. Not only that, but the electrician had failed to bring the prior inspection report and all the photos he had taken to show the previous work that had been approved. The second inspector, who was different from the first, could not tell what had been approved or what had been done properly previously. He wrote a correction notice in lieu of fining the electricians and told him that he needed to schedule another final and bring all the records from the first inspection and if they had been lost, to come to City Hall and get a copy of that report from the planning department to bring to the final.
Weeks went by with no further word and then I got a bill from Sprig for the final $300 I had held back. I notified them that the installation had never passed final inspection. The rep for Sprig, named Jason, told me he was sure they had received final approval, but would double check with the inspector and would send me the notice showing it had been approved. I checked with the planning department myself and they assured me that it had not been approved. I then called the inspector himself who also told me that he could not approve it in its current state and told me not to pay the final bill. Jason sent me the notice which showed that the spot for final approval had NOT been signed and there was a notation at the bottom that a correction notice had been issued. I contacted him again and he said that one of his managers had told him that the initials at the bottom (where it indicated there was a correction notice) meant it had been approved for the final even though he admitted it was not signed where it usually is for the final. I told him I had spoken to the inspector myself and been told not to pay. He told me again he would double check with the inspector. Nothing changed since then until yesterday, when I received in the mail yet another bill for $300. This is beyond incompetent. It is clearly fraudulent. Sprig knows they failed to complete the installation. Ecotality knows they have a fraudulent and incompetent vendor but I would be willing to bet that they are still referring jobs to them and probably paid them in full for my job even though it wasn't completed. It is patently unfair to the consumers to deny them the right to choose their own electrician and shop around for price and reputation, and then when they are ripped off to do nothing to cure the situation. It is also inexcusable for Ecotality not to contact the participants when problems arise. They merely take a complaint down and apparently just forward it to the electricians who are ripping off the customer. The attitude seems to be tell any lies you need to in order to get people to sign up, then screw them once you start getting the data transmitted. Sprig should be barred as a vendor and the $1200 for the "installation" in my case at least should be withheld.
This whole EV Project experience has been a nightmare. I have been extremely vocal on
mynissanleaf.com, the main forum for Leaf owners, detailing every step of this fiasco and encouraging everyone NOT to participate in the EV Project. I will continue to do so until it begins to be administered in a responsible way. The DOE should be ashamed of itself for allowing this state of affairs to exist. Of course I am not going to pay the $300. I do have a working Blink EVSE, even though it has not proven to be any more useful to than the 120V plug in my wall, but the inspector told me if the plasterer did not properly put in new wire mesh and paper, which I am pretty sure he did not, then my stucco job is substandard and could deteriorate early. I have spent thousands of dollars to get work done on my house that has, if anything, lessened its value and for a car with an already vestigial 440V port. The other features I got with the SL (backup camera and garage door opener) are nearly worthless to me. The DOE should be spending money to subsidize the the purchase of the cars, not changing the infrastructure. The Leaf and Volt are perfectly good cars as is, using existing plugs and the Level 2 chargers that employers, hotels, etc. are installing. The EV Project itself is draining money away from that. I support your goals, but not the way this has been administered.