Freedom of choice confirmed

[mountaineer]

A local Mr. Electric Installer—the franchise that installs the Ford-badged Leviton EVSE with a 10-y extended warranty if you pay $1,500 to Best Buy's Geek Squad for the turnkey package offered and promoted through Ford EV dealers—told me that his OEM-approved SPX trainer had told an installer training webinar that using a non-Leviton charger or a non-Ford-network installer could void the vehicle warranty. Since this is undisclosed and nowhere mentioned on the Web, I thought it unlikely, so I checked with a senior person at Ford Corporate who's responsible for Ford Focus Electric. He confirmed in writing that this is not the case; rather, that using a J1772-compliant, UL-approved charger from any manufacturer, properly installed by a licensed electrician in accordance with applicable electric codes and standards and used in accordance with the vehicle manual, will not affect the vehicle warranty.

Good to know. If you hear any scare-tactic sales claim implying otherwise in order to promote the Ford/Leviton offer, please post details here so I can tell Ford they have a more systematic training or network misrepresentation problem they need to fix right away.

 

[klusters]

Good to know, thanks. So are you going to get the Leviton system?

 

[mountaineer]

No, an AeroVironment RS plug-in, for some rather arcane reasons. Either should work fine, as should Schneider, Siemens, probably GE, and other J1772-compliant units.

Also, as a sophisticated user with an unusual house (so it's best to have my own master electrician do the install), I thought the Ford/Leviton/Best Buy Geek Squad/Mr. Electric turnkey deal would in my case not be worth the extra cost (~$1500 total) to get Ford's 10-y warranty on a box that has very little inside to fail.

But interestingly, a different Mr. Electric installer meanwhile called me and said she'd been told by her own boss that not taking the Ford turnkey deal could void the vehicle warranty. We agreed this is a problem, based on Ford's written assurance to me to the contrary (my post below) and needs to be fixed fundamentally. So she's to have her boss call me, I'll send him the Ford reply, and I'll ask both him and Ford Corporate to get to the root of where this mis/disinformation is coming from so it can be permanently stopped at its source.