I had a tire that needed air in my tire, so I went to the gas station with my EV and got some in there.
That’s great for now, but what happens in several years when the number of Gas stations declines? Gas stations have been great resources for air, bathrooms, and snacks on road trips. What is going to replace it?
My EV came with a compressor in the trunk. Last time I needed to fill the tires it worked fine.
I didn’t even realize this until one day on the Nissan Leaf discussion boards, which led to a hilarious discussion of a whole bunch of us who had no idea we were carrying our own solution to this…
I fully expect as EVs start becoming more popular, we’ll see more businesses that build services around fast charging. Right now, it’s more of an ad hoc situation, where these things are placed in small lots as just standalone charging because it’s cheap and simple, but as it proves to be the case that people who are charging want something to do in the meantime, that kind of product and/or service will catch on.
Air, for instance - one could easily package an EV charging station with a compressor addon, allowing complementary tire inflating on their charging stations. Right now, they’re just focused on making the chargers more capable and reliable, but when most brands are pretty consistent across the board, they will want more features to attract customers.
I can imagine investors are coming up with all sorts of ways to expand on chargers. I could see Montana going hard on adding little gambling outposts where you can sit and play slots and buy junk food from vending machines while you wait. I think it will be quite a while before we see gas stations shutting down due to lack of interest, but it should be a no-brainer to use that same building in nearly the same way, just for EV charging instead.
There’s a company near me that is piloting a mobile charging service. https://www.sparkcharge.io/
When the charges on our thru-way all failed over Memorial Day weekend, they provided the emergency service. I heard they were also in talks with AAA to be something that a tow truck could carry, or some emergency service vehicle.
Solutions exist. Just not yet at scale.
Gas stations will have chargers and probably be just as common if not more so.
Service stations. Little shop and cafe, rest rooms and some car related amenities. If people wait a few minutes to an hour at a charger and don’t need to hold on to a fuel hose, it’s even more likely they’ll pop in. I think they’ll actually do better with more EV traffic than with ICE.
On road trips sure. The majority of people with EVs are going to do the bulk of their charging at home though.
Right now, many people who can’t charge at home (because they live in an apartment and/or rely on street parking) don’t consider EV ownership to be practical… But when public charging infrastructure gets better, maybe they will.
And level 2 or 3 chargers already cover almost all of those people.
People don’t generally need to charge a huge amount in a few minutes other than road trips. For the vast majority of people having chargers in parking lots that can do 100 miles an hour of charging is more than sufficient. You just plug in in the parking spot while you’re shopping and keep your car with sufficient charge all the time.
When you’re on the road is the only time that you really need a super fast charger because nobody wants to sit around for an hour to only get another hour and a half on the road, turning a 10 hour trip into 20+.
Gas stations in Norway have been changing it their gas pumps for EV chargers. Wawa’s has been doing this too.
