Gas stations might not be quite as drastic as that, but still seems like the same principle applies.
Although conversely the convenience stores at fast charge stations probably do a lot better. If you have to wait for 30 minutes anyway might as well go in...
Already have:
https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/newsroom/article/News.ev_...
https://instavolt.co.uk/first-instavolt-ev-rapid-charger-goe...
I realize that is anecdotal since I haven't been to all that many pitstops. But the competition for pitstop restaurant space is pretty clear.
The more common version of the fallacy is, "Pharmaceutical companies produce nothing of value because look, most of their money is spent on marketing, not on discovering miracle cures."
Yes, they spend on a ton of money on marketing to eke out whatever they can from a given discovery ... but that all depends on having a legit discovery to begin with.
Gas stations are situated near population centers, because you tend to run out of gas wherever you're driving, and you drive where you live.
In practice, consumer EVs almost universally charge at home[1] and "never" just "run out" of charge. You're car is always charged, there's little value to topping up at the shopping areas or whatever. Instead, you need DC fast charging where you travel: on the long distance arteries where your car can't otherwise reach.
To be clear: you need gas there too. But rural highway gas stations represent a small fraction of all gas service. Most gas stations won't be able to shift to EV charging and keep their business model.
[1] Though there are growing pains with apartment facilities being slow to install AC charging. Right now an EV works much better in a home with a garage, though that seems likely to sort itself out. Cheap electrical work is cheap, it's just a question of how to get people to pay for it. Some regulation is likely to be needed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjiR-Wz_Z8s
And roadside wireless charging will be an interesting option in the future:
This is a stop gap until legislation requires EV charging be provided at apartments and workplaces (similar to handicap parking mandates).
But that’s changing soon, apparently:
However Tesla destination chargers which are lower speed and three have been available for both Tesla cars and non-Tesla EVs.
In theory it should be possible to open up Superchargers to other brands, but it's more of a marketing/business issue than any technical problem.
I really don't see Volkswagen/Audi/BMW making a deal with Tesla to integrate their systems with the Tesla backend. Would you want your customers to use a competitors tools? =)
The solution is to get chargers installed wherever you park the car. May require legislation if your landlord is uncooperative.
In the mean time, charging at a public charging station isn’t so bad provided it’s convenient and reliable. If you can combine charging with shopping or dining etc it’s not much different to topping up at a gas station. Probably cheaper too!
I remember many years ago that having one of these outlets was a bullet point for apartment listings, but nowadays it's just expected.
So the market worked in that case.
EV charging stations are going to be more expensive than a basic 20 amp outlet (a quick web search indicates $700 to $2,000, not including installation), but not all that expensive, compared to the other capital expenses involved in being a landlord.
[1] https://evonestop.co.uk/collections/home-charging-range/prod...
The ones I was seeing were built into bollard-like posts.
Obviously bollards will cost more, but something like this would be suitable if you have parking spaces up against an existing wall.
There's a block heater for the engine, just to get the oil to a sane temperature. Pretty much every single parking spot in apartment buildings has an 8A/230V socket for it.
If you remove the default 2 hour timer from it, you can use the exact same socket to charge 100-200km of range to an electric car over night.
A 3.7kW one will be more than enough for people working 9-5. The car will be sitting there doing nothing for 10+ hours anyway, why not charge at the same time.
Nothing will change without legislation though.
In Finland we changed the law so that if an apartment building has "major renovations", they MUST install EV charging capability for all parking spots. (No need to install a charger, it just needs to be possible).
The kind of mediocre little shops that you mostly only stop at for gas and only go into the store if you really need something though will suffer.
The only places I see dedicated electric 'gas stations' surviving is in rural locations along major highways.
I’m not sure how much gas pumps cost, but you’d still need the sawcutting and trenching, along with pipe. Probably about the same cost.
The electric work on top of that isn't that much, any parking garage should have more than enough electricity for lighting etc that can be tapped into.
And also consider that electric vehicle users can charge overnight at home, so those people driving 50-100 miles per day may not need to use a charging station at all, apart from long journeys - which is likely to impact the favorable locations significantly.
Even with super fast chargers, you're looking at 15-30 minutes for 100-200 miles of range, vs 5-10 minutes for 400-600 miles of range.
Assuming a limited amount of space for vehicles, a traditional liquid fuel filling station can probably handle 4-6 times as many customers, so the electric charging station will need more physical space to serve a similar amount of customers.
Users are going to want to do something for that time, so that convenience store will probably expand to add sit down food/drink facilities.
In short, I suspect that in 10-15 years time, filling stations will have evolved into something completely different.
Or maybe electric charging will be a bolt on to anything that has a car park, and dedicated charging locations will be relatively rare.
I think it will be both. Anywhere in and around a town or city will have electric charging at most normal parking spaces and basically no dedicated charging stations. Along major highways you'll see a lot more large dedicated charging stations like the ones you describe.
Even many commercial fleets won't have a need for stopping there as it'll be cheaper to charge wherever they're parked when not being driven.
Fast chargers will be necessary when traveling, but that's a small fraction of what gas stations see now. And even then it might look different (big trucks require a lot of space to park while charging, consumer traveling is concentrated in bursts based on time of the year).
Here in Finland the two largest charging networks are owned by ... grocery store chains.
Why would you stop at a janky gas station selling overpriced crap and day-old hot dogs, when you can take a 5 minute detour and go charge at a supermarket? Which usually has at least one fast-food place, maybe a restaurant and the snacks are orders of magnitude cheaper.
Also just by plugging in to an AC charger (11-22kW) when doing your shopping, you usually get back home with more charge than you left. The EV parking spots are usually at the best spots too, so that's an additional incentive.
It had three of those big charging stations with a vertical advertising screen, and the cables to charge your car were missing from all of them.
In fact we want them dead. Gas stations are usually occupying very nice commercial land.
Because they'll just put in fast chargers. There is a need for many more DC fast chargers than are currently available and gas stations are installing them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TVohXHjLro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6BGJy49u4w
EV fast charger installation is all about the location and gas stations already have good locations.
Indeed there will be people who have to inconveniently stop at one of these locations. But they’ll endeavour to avoid it whenever possible.
Furthermore, the fast chargers popping up everywhere near me are simply parking spots in more interesting commercial areas like Walmart, fast food, Home Depot, etc. Why would we have dedicated plots of land for just chargers? Install them in existing parking lots.
I’m convinced these gas stations are mostly going away.
If I had an EV and couldn't charge at home, I'd be charging at the chargers next to one of my local supermarkets. I'm not going to go to one of the gas station locations around where I live and twiddle my thumbs for 20 minutes even if they had charging.
To have cover out of the rain. To have room to charge with a trailer attached. To charge larger vehicles.
I think there’s a lack of imagination or a desire to confirm one’s priors.
You don't have to "think" anything. The practical outcomes speak for themselves. Chargers are going in at gas stations right now.
1) EV charger margin is higher when you compare the kWh rate they charge drivers to the local electric rates (sometimes 10c/kWH spread)
2) EV charging is 20-40min so they have more time to shop
3) EV owners are on average higher income, so should have more disposable income to spend
Probably some sort of Starbucks x Pret-A-Manger x fancy convenience store model would do well.