Every time some sort of new, in-demand technology first comes out, the technology itself tends to be huge, and so does the price tag. Zach-Morris-style ‘80s cellular telephones were hardly compact, for example, and they were so expensive at first that only the world’s richest citizens owned them. My parents still talk about the first home video recorder they ever bought–$1,500 for a gigantic, cumbersome piece of equipment that recorded to VHS cassettes. CD players were the same way, as were MP3 players and laptops and all sorts of other things.
And among those “other” things, at least in today’s world, would have to be the EV charging station. Consumers can already buy at-home charging stations that are smaller, reasonably affordable, and more tailored to single-car use, but stations designed for heavy use by the general public have been pretty expensive (and pretty bulky) to date. Since making these sorts of charging stations affordable is paramount to getting more EVs like Nissan’s Leaf out on roads, it was imperative that the automaker find a way make these stations smaller and sell them for less money.
Delray Beach Nissan fans may have lamented the earlier high sticker price (a shade under $38,000), but now the cost is about half that much, and a higher-grade outdoor charger can be had for as little as $13,000. That one also got a pay cut and a redesign.
Nissan is aiming to get about 5,000 of these charging stations sold, distributed, and running in Japan within a half-decade, with the expectation that beyond 2016 the need for more stations will shoot through the roof, as will the need for EVs.
Any Delray Nissan dealership would have to hope that were the case, and that eventually these public charging stations will start showing up in Florida, too. The Leaf is the direction the company wants to head, and so far it seems like that’s the direction customers want to see, too. Very early on, about 14,000 Leafs have been sold, and 619 chargers already are in use in Japan.
Right now, there aren’t a whole lot of completely electric vehicles out there, but both supply and demand are going to pick up very quickly, and we’ll need the stations to make sure these cars can run. Fixing the technology and making it more affordable is a great place to start.
