Volvo dealers telling people they can use superchargers

[Epico]

Just been having a conversation with my brother who has just placed an order for an xc40 recharge.
He needs to travel long distances for work and the dealer who sold him the car told him his car has the same connection as a Tesla (true) so can use superchargers (not true).

Anyone else had experience of this. He only went for the car because he has the ability to charge at locations with superchargers. It's totally wrong for dealers to do this surely...as they are knowingly being deceitful by stating it has the same connection as a Tesla...but knowing for a fact they can't use the chargers.

He's now going back to the dealer. Who knows may end up cancelling the order because of it.

 

[Tony Hoyle]

It's not uncommon. Car salesmen know little of what they're selling.

Nissan have dedicated EV salesmen and that helped a lot. I don't think other manufacturers do.

 

[Olibol]

I’ve been astonished by how little mainstream dealers know about their product. Porsche had a pop-up in Norwich the other day, with the Taycan Cross Turismo. I was asking a bit about it, and when I asked whether they’d be producing a RWD version the salesperson said they didn’t think they could because they have a battery in the back and a battery in the front!

 

[FlyingHappily]

Same experience with Jaguar salesman (a year ago now). It didn’t sound right so I searched online and this was originally how I found this forum - which really helped me make the Tesla choice. A narrow escape, I would find the car much less useful without any supercharger network.

 

[Jason71]

Giving the benefit of the doubt it may just be ignorance there is a lot of it out there
exhibit A comment I found in relation to superchargers in the DM. "What is this supercharger, it takes 8 hours to charge check it out there is no such thing" sigh
I'm pretty sure the Venn diagram of car salesmen and morons still has some overlap

 

[Cloggie]

99% of salesmen are the same, they will say pretty much anyhting to get the sale, not unique to cars. It's very disappointing when you talk to them and all don't even know the basic info from the brochure.
How p1ssed off would you be if you bought that Volvo and tried to charge at a supercharger with a low charge left to get you (hopefully) somewhere else.

 

[Envchem]

I have seen this happening unfortunately. Last time I used a supercharger (Telford) while I was parking an I Pace was maneuvering close by. The guy came out and was trying to charge. I walked over and explained to him that it works only with Teslas and he looked gobsmacked. He may even thought I was lying to him till he plugged it in and no joy. He then proceed to tell me that this was the first time he had to use a public charger and when he leased it he was told he could use every public charger; even Superchargers. He had like 15% left...

 

[Plagued]

It's probably not helped by the fact that there was a period of time when you could just plug any CCS car in and it would charge. So if you google it you would find people saying that they could charge their ipace/MG/Etron etc at superchargers ...
There's growing pressure on Tesla to open up charging networks to other manufacturers. The recent government survey including a question on making it mandatory that networks open up to all vehicles, which you can bet was answered "yes" by anyone without a tesla and "no" by any tesla owners.
They may end up making a compromise, like allowing any "B" chargers to be open and limiting the rates to give priority to the "A" charger, or reserving a bank of them. Depends if they willingly do it or are forced.

 

[Tony Hoyle]

With superchargers they really can't physically let any car use them due to the position of the cable.. only cars with a port on the back right or possibly the front. If they were to start building them differently it would work.. but they haven't shown any signs of doing so.

 

[Mr H]

With superchargers they really can't physically let any car use them due to the position of the cable.. only cars with a port on the back right or possibly the front. If they were to start building them differently it would work.. but they haven't shown any signs of doing so.

All they would need to do is fit longer cables

 

[leewillis77]

All they would need to do is fit longer cables

The large power going through the cables requires quite a lot of cooling. Extended the cables isn't a trivially simple, or cheap change. Certainly not something they'd want to do with guaranteed income to offset the additional cost.

Not to say it isn't possible, but it's not as simple as you're making out.

 

[TM88]

I could imagine a longer cable being left on the ground and possibly being run over by another vehicle.