Deal to acquire Nissan Leaf for driver’s ed falls through

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Sean Hull

Managing Editor

mhudso27@jccc.edu

As part of the college’s commitment to furthering sustainable practices, a deal between the Continuing Education program and the McCarthy Auto Group sought to obtain a Nissan Leaf, an electric vehicle, for use in driver’s education. However, the college’s legal counsel said the deal could not be made.

Tanya Wilson, the college’s general counsel, could not comment on why the deal fell through, as it is still a pending case in their offices. Three parties were involved in the deal: the college, McCarthy and the Nissan Corporation. Plans broke down when the Nissan Corporation proposed their contract and the college’s legal counsel decided it was an unfeasible agreement. Wilson has said that all involved are continuing negotiations.

Phil Wegman, the program director in Continuing Education in the department of transportation, said he first came up with the idea to have local companies sponsor a vehicle for the driver’s ed program about five years ago when he bought a Nissan from McCarthy. When he bought a second vehicle from them a couple years later, he decided to make them a “customer of [his].”

“I renewed that discussion with them and they said, ‘Well send us some details, we’ll see what we can do,’ and that’s how it started,” said Wegman.

If the deal had been successful, the driver’s education program would get the new vehicle they need, while McCarthy would get advertising, as the vehicle was going to have a wrap on it advertising the company.

Wegman specifically wanted an electric vehicle because he sees the industry increasingly moving away from gasoline-powered vehicles. He mentioned the importance of introducing the community’s young drivers to the concept of electric vehicles and getting them thinking about sustainability.

“We need to be thinking about the future of driving in the United States. Right now we got low oil prices, people are all excited about buying the big pickup trucks and four-wheel-drive vehicles, but we need to be thinking about sustainability,” said Wegman.

The college will continue to pursue a deal with the McCarthy and the Nissan Corporation. Wegman said he has considered speaking with other companies and will do so if a deal cannot be reached with McCarthy. However, he is optimistic it’s only a matter of continuing negotiations.

“To me, there are very few problems in this world that we can’t solve by just sitting down in good faith. All parties talking to each other are trying to compromise and find a way that it can work,” said Wegman.

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