The inferesting places are not always private properties that are trying to attract people. On my road trips, I often end up stopping and stretching my legs at scenic overlooks, hiking trails, lakes etc, none of which are likely to sprout charging stations any time soon.
If that's true, then it may be a matter of lingering perception. As an ICE car owner who lives in LA, I see plenty of charging stations, but not necessarily when I go on drives of hundreds of miles outside the city. Of course, I may be biased given that I don't need to pay active attention to vehicle chargers. But, for me, it would be a deal breaker if I couldn't be confident that my car could still be fuelled up in Bumf*k, Nowhere.
It feels like it would make more sense to encourage installation of charging infrastructure at places where you might want to be for half an hour anyway; parks with parking lots, restaurants, grocery stores, etc; rather than encouraging it at gas stations, except for in the rural highway case where gas stations might be all that's easy to find when you're driving between urban areas.
Honestly people don't want to go to a gas station and wait and watch people fill up while their car charges, they'll park somewhere where they can get out, sit in a cafe, do some shopping, go to work, or go to sleep - in short people use chargers in a different way than they use gas pumps.
I think there is a place for gas stations with chargers .... along the interstate .... but not in cities
It surprises me that coffee shops, restaurants and rest stops haven't picked up on the gas station model of fuel/energy as loss leader/sold at cost, and making the money on a captive audience. Hell, even local business groups should be trying to get them on main streets of small towns.
I'm not an EV owner, but I would definitely plan my charging around meal stops if I knew that some restaurant always had chargers for customers.
I always see EV chargers put in spots that I would never want to spend 30 minutes.
Tesla rolled out the "destination charger" program for such places. Lots of touristy small towns in California have many more destination chargers than public J1772 stations. Here's a map for the whole country:
But would you be annoyed if you had a bunch of people over for dinner and one of them charged their car there? What if you met together at a commonly owned cabin?
The questions really need to be:
* How obvious was the outlet available to service (was it hidden and tough to get to)?
* Was the man charging his car there out of malice or simply convenience?
* Are there other public or private entities where this is the norm? Yes, there are charging stations at malls, state parks, and state rest areas.
I think this is simply tapping into existing infrastructure. It's not all bad. When I stop to charge, usually I'll find the nearest washroom and use it (why not?). I might grab a snack or something, too. A gas station satisfies both these requirements and is already grid-connected (electricity, plumbing, waste).
What I'd like to see more of is comforts -- I want a comfy place to sit and relax for a bit or a park trail to walk around. I hate when I pull into a charger and it's just a parking lot. Not stimulating at all. Nothing to do but sit there. If I'm not using the gas station amenities it's not much better than an empty parking lot.
I feel like gas stations have this "grind" / roadtrip mentality whereas I kind of want a relaxing, decompression space to charge my car. So maybe you're right...
"Sure businesses could install chargers in their parking lots but we have a LONG way to go for that"
Why's that? I've seen hotels in Spain with dedicated Tesla parking/charging stations. Gas stations will be retrofitted with charging/swapping options. Tesla/other may partner with other businesses to install charging stations on the street.
Cars will leave while you're hiking to recharge. National Parks may well install charging stations and have regular, automated shuttles running the most popular routes.
Plus you're talking about a very specific case to suggest this being an issue for "large portions of America".
When I'm in some unknown location I'm not going to hire an electrician to put in a charging station where I happen to need one. I depend on one being there. However as I already said charge at home means refueling places become uneconomical and they out out of business meaning that even though it isn't hard to put a charging station anywhere that doesn't mean they will exist.
Of course what I'm lacking is knowing how much this will affect things long term. Right no charging stations are being installed on hope they are worth it, if this turns out to be false owners will start to tear them out.
Where I lived, virtually every big parking lot had charging stations. As big parking lots are generally wasted space anyways, why not work with them to be the place to charge? Just as I don't gas up at home, I can live with not charging at home, especially as charge times come down in the future.
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.
Tesla has tried to establish charging stations near shopping areas. There is generally lots to do. For example the last one I visited had multiple fast food places, an outlet mall and a casino. (This was in Primm, Nevada.)
It's a way for them to stay somehow relevant. I think the ones in cities will be gone once EV adoption takes off - people will charge while out shopping, when parked, etc.
The chargers in rest stops/stations road side will be where business is.
I've seen EV charging stations at offices and supermarkets in some pretty "old" places. I could imagine seeing them in more places where you park for a while.
It greatly depends. That said, I would say a large amount of the high power DC charging points (i.e., the ones you need to use when road tripping, and have to stop at for ~20-30 mins at a time) tend to be placed in inconvenient places. For example, at the VERY back of a parking lot, 200+ ft away from the nearest storefront.
Generally, it seems that they pick the furthest away locations because they aren't desirable spots, EV chargers usually need some large infrastructure that takes up additional space, and EV owners don't really have a choice...
Additionally, depending on where you have to stop, you may have a charger located in some mall or group of stores that closes at a relatively early hour (~9PM). Usually these are far enough from a convenience store (you know, the ones attached to a gas station) that it makes more sense to just wait at the charger then make a separate stop at a gas station if you need snacks/bathroom/etc.
Some stores do a good job of integrating the chargers nearby to their business, but your mileage may vary wildly. There's a bakery that has a supercharger I stop at frequently on a road trip that I take; when the bakery is open, it's fantastic little stop with food, snacks, restroom, etc. When it's closed... tough luck.
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