A very welcome addition to the Dealer DC Quick Charge network in Tennessee is Nissan of Rivergate north of Nashville. The dealership is found close to the intersection of I-65 and TN-386, two very busy roads in this area on Gallatin Pike North near the Rivergate Mall.
Up until now South and East of Nashville have been well served by DC Fast charging stations at Nissan facilities and Cracker Barrel Restaurants. This is the first Quick charge unit North of Nashville. The only direction void of Quick Charging is West of Nashville towards Dickson. A quick charger out that way would round off the network nicely.
The Quick Charge unit at Nissan of Rivergate is located close to the Service Department entrance, which is to the right of the building as you approach it from Gallatin Pike. Better access can be found directly off Altus Avenue. The dealership does lock up its lot out of hours, however the dealership is open 7 days a week. Hours are 7:30am – 9:00pm on Weekdays and Saturday and 12:00pm – 7:00pm on Sundays. Unless you are traveling very early or late you should be able to gain access to the charging stations at this dealership.
I spent 18 minutes charging, the vehicles charge increased from 50% to 80% in this time. I did notice the charge was rapid to begin with, feeding over 90Amps of energy at 390 volts, but this tapered off to only 29 Amps towards the end of the charge. Old and/or cold batteries do not accept the quick charging as quickly as a new warm battery would. The best part about Nissan placing these units at their dealerships is that charging is free.
This dealer has 3 other accessible 240 Level 2 charging units, 2 adjacent to the Quick Charge unit and a third the opposite side of the building close to another service entrance. I found it interesting that the two Level 2 charging stations were ICE’d by what appeared to be dealer employees, the Altima had Dealer Tags on it. Nissan dealers are famous for blocking access to EV charging station on their own lots. Maybe if Nissan suggested the dealer owner drive an EV for a while they may get a clue one day. Notice the EV Charging placards indicate LEAF. I wonder if they would turn away a Mitsubishi or Tesla?