this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
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Gas stations will need to evolve to account for the wait of EV charging. They will need to become fast casual restaurants with options for long-term stayers and this is not possible with some landlocked locations, as opposed to newer developments in the states.
Every gas station has non gas pump parking. Slap a couple of them in there.
If anything its a boon for them, as gas is sold at cost generally. Nearly all the profit comes from items in the convenience store.
I think you have it backwards.
Gas stations don't need to evolve to become restaurants... restaurants needs to simply add chargers.
It isn't even a huge leap for customers to expect it either. Some 15 years ago there was a big push for restaurants and stores and markets to install wifi for their customers. This is not all that different, quite honestly. If a restaurant has 15 parking spots in it's lot, it shouldn't be a huge ask to install a handful of chargers which can be shared by most of the parking spots. Most parking lots already have some kind of power out there for signage or lightpoles. You can tap off that, or go solar.
Most restaurants that germans go to don't have a parking lot nearby. Most restaurants are in the city. Although maybe some enterprising country inn/restaurant owners already offer EV charging.
You're thinking cities with single use neighbourhoods like in the US, where residency and commercial areas are usually separated. That's not the case in Germany.
I think they are closer than you might think. You obviously can't consider what it would cost to set up wifi using today's technology. You'd have to consider early 2000s tech and what that cost. Also for EV chargers today, many areas have rebate programs to reduce costs. There's also the incentive to charge for the electricity - turn it into a money maker for the business.
My experience is that even places with fast food are not fast enough for EV charging. I pretty much always end up charging more than I actually need, or even move the car because its fully charged, before we're done eating and back at the car.
Right now EVs charge fast enough that you can't do anything meaningful with the time, but too slow for just sitting and waiting.
Some US chains are primed for this, or at least pretty close. Wawa, Buc-ee's, and similar, have ready made and made to order food, restrooms, and many have shopping as well. They aren't full sitdown restaurants, but they could optionally add seating areas if they didn't want to just let people eat in their cars.
So pretty much they just need to find space for the car chargers at their normal parking spots, and maybe add some more spots to deal with increased demand in the future. I've seen both Wawa and Buc-ee's testing chargers at some of the locations, so they're definitely moving in the direction already.
With housing the way it is, and AI driving being a possibility, we're going to see a huge influx of people truly living in their cars. Add remote work into the mix?