What are the benefits and drawbacks of the free Nissan Leaf DLC running in your city? Are they pure park n rides? Or are they more like a park? Do citizens commute there only from their homes? Do they decrease land value like a bus terminal does? Who drives there: workers, shoppers, students, etc?
I read the initial information in the FAQ about the Nissan Leaf but I would like some more detailed input from somebody that has studied their operation more closely.
I did some studying of the daily activity of the station. Here's what I found. (Note: Let me just completely debunk park and ride its nothing like that).
Cost/Available
First it costs 5,000 and 40/hr. You can build up to 5 of them in a single city.
Function
noisysplatter is correct is saying it functions like a park. There are some differences though.
It creates a city wide happiness wave (just like the Town Hall). This happiness is a single wave for each station you place down. You will NOT get a 2nd wave if you destroy your 5th station and try and place it again for another happiness boost.
Sims will not walk to it like a regular park. The only people arriving and leaving come in their Nissan Leaf cars.
How it works: A "Shopper" Sim will leave their home with $ in hand driving for a station. There is no limit to the range they will drive to get there. Once they reach the station they stay there for about 1 hour gametime and then they will head home with 2 happiness (not entirely sure if they keep their money or not).
Some people on reddit claimed that cars "transform" in Nissan Leaf cars once they arrive at the station, but I did not observe this. What happened for me was, once I placed a station, cars that are born will have a chance to be a Nissan Leaf. I assume the more stations you place the more Nissan Leaf cars will be born.
The station does not draw power, water, or create sewage, garbage. It does not require workers to function.
The station's land value is neutral. The land value doesn't increase like a regular park, and it does not decrease it like anything related to mass transit (park and rides, bus stops, etc).
Conclusions
The relatively cheap cost and operating price mean you can't go wrong placing it. The only thing which I do not know how to test is the functionality of the happiness wave that stretches out to your city. I assume is it a daily "tick", kind of like homes near a garbage dump will lose some happiness every day from being next to it. This would prevent you from placing the stations for the initial happiness boost then shutting them down to save the operating cost. Placing the park has dots along the road, similar to a low-wealth park. I am not sure if THIS is the range of the daily happiness "ticks" or your entire city gets it, I have no easy way of testing this.
Verdict: A no brainer to place these at the overpowered price-to-benefit ratio.
The only benefit I have been able to work out is:
It makes people happier that are near it.
You will see Nissan Leaf cars on the road.
Does not increase land value.
It is merely the equivalent of a low wealth park with a disproportionately high happiness to size ratio.
