Are Gas Stations Geared For Extinction?

6 min read

Hi, I’m Rick Barron, your host, and welcome to That’s Life, I Swear

Change is a constant. The world we live in is consistently evolving. Everywhere, all the time, something is changing.  One of those changes happening is the corner gas station. Why would that be? 

I can say it with two letters…EV.

Let’s jump into this 

The other day while doing my daily 2 mile run through my neighborhood, I couldn’t help but notice just how many homes not only have solar panels on their roofs but the number of home charging stations for their EV’s, are popping up.

You see them all around today. The charging station hose typically runs from beneath the garage door and is hooked into the EV. 

Everywhere you look today, you see the number of EV cars populating the roads. 

It’s as plain as the nose on your face that electric cars and trucks are taking over the American highways. The White House has a target date for half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be EVs by 2030. That’s just 8 years away.

Auto giants are already making plans to go fully electric and hybrid-electric by 2030 like GM, Volvo, Honda, Jaguar, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, VW, and perish the thought, even Rolls Royce is reportedly working on a first-EV called the Silent Shadow. 

Gas stations fading away for EV chargers. Courtesy New York Times

As utility companies hurry to expand the number of charging stations , a critical step for the EV transition, the future of the corner gas station is in doubt and may soon start developing cobwebs. 

Gas stations are a regular part of the American lifestyle. Drivers make daily or weekly stops to pump the gas into their cars, prices being what they are, and buy a lottery ticket, grab a hot coffee and donut before heading off to their destinations. 

Some gas stations have seen the handwriting on the wall.  By that I mean they decided to adapt or die, and  install charging ports alongside their pumps.  Now that EV chargers can be installed in almost any location connected to the power grid, they’re available in office garages and rest stops and will soon be in some Starbucks parking lots. 

When one does the math, the gas station as we once knew it, is increasingly unnecessary for some Americans. So, guess you can say the gas station we once knew is going the way of the horse and buggy. 

Gas stations on the extinction list? Courtesy of: Richmond Register

With the consumer now able to install charging stations in their home, the convenience is they’re not anchored to the gas station. 

Seeing this new trend developing has to have gas station owners very worried. Boston Consulting Group analysts estimate that if EVs do take off, as much as 80 percent of the retail fuel market could be unprofitable by 2035. Ouch, that’s only 12 years away!

Should the demand for gasoline disappear entirely, more than 100,000 stations throughout the country would be at risk of going out of business. If they’re unable to sell fuel, gas stations would struggle to make money since people typically buy products at their convenience stores while filling up. In addition, think about the future of gas station mechanics. For most gas stations, the mechanic brings in the money!

If gas stations want to survive, they need to start reinventing themselves for a world beyond gas. Easier said than done. Installing EV chargers in existing gas station locations can be quite expensive. As car manufacturers, charging station companies, and the government race to build a new network of EV chargers, gas stations might become irrelevant.

EV station...the future. Courtesy of: The Boston Globe

The gas station of tomorrow, or EV station, might look very different very soon. It might be electrified parking spots placed throughout a city, or lead to futuristic road stops where people can go to the gym while their EVs charge. One thing is certain, EVs will change our built environment.

So, you’re the owner of a gas station and want to join the EV charging party. How do you retrofit a gas station for EVs?

To adjust to the business model for the EV era, some gas stations are now installing Level 3 chargers, which can deliver as much as 20 miles of range per minute, alongside their old pumps and convenience stores. 

Why a Level 3 charger? Pretty simple, speed. The consumer doesn’t want to have to wait hours on end to recharge their EV. Type 3 chargers, also known as DC fast charging or DCFC chargers, will get you the quickest juice-up of any charging station out there. A type 3 charging station can get an EV’s battery to around 80 percent in about half an hour.

Some of these fast chargers make EV charging almost as speedy as filling up a gas tank the old-fashioned way, and they’re much faster than what people typically use at home. 

Several gas station owners who have or are installing Level 3 chargers say their goal is to become “fuel agnostic” and appeal to EV drivers as well as those with gas-powered cars.

But for many gas stations, the cost of an EV charger outweighs the benefits. The charger itself can cost tens of thousands of dollars, which is a tough expense if you’re just a mom and pop owner of a gas station. 

With the chargers costing a high premium, there’s the installation which involves drilling through asphalt and laying electrical wiring, and sometimes gas stations also need to buy transformers to boost the overall electrical capacity of their sites. 

Chris Bambury, who operates several gas stations in California, said that setting up just four EV chargers at one of his locations would have cost about half a million dollars if government and utility programs hadn’t covered about 90 percent of the bill.

An even bigger challenge is that gas stations already face intense competition from other public EV chargers. Data collected by the Department of Energy shows that, of the public charger locations the agency fully tracks, there are currently more public chargers located at hotels and inns, shopping centers, and government buildings than there are at gas stations and convenience stores. 

This is a limited picture of the nation’s charging network, and it doesn’t include the large number of chargers built by private companies like Blink, Electrify America, and Chargepoint. These companies also seem to prefer installing these chargers in places with parking spots connected to the grid, where EV drivers can find something to do while charging, like go to a grocery store or a restaurant.

The US Government really wants to convince people that EVs are just as easy to use — and can go just as far — as gas vehicles.

That said, it’s pushing ahead to building a large number of charging stations in convenient locations. To amplify this push, the White House plans to spend $5 billion as part of a goal to build more than 500,000 public chargers across the country by 2030. 

The $5billion will be distributed among the states, and the goal is that there will eventually be chargers at least every 50 miles on the US Interstate Highway System. 

It goes without saying that hearing all this news doesn’t make gas station owners jump up to cheer. The government’s efforts to put EV chargers anywhere and everywhere is only going to make their lives harder. 

But perhaps the biggest obstacle facing gas stations, is customer convenience. Many EV owners buy chargers that plug into a standard home wall outlet just like their laptop or phone, and that virtually eliminates the need for frequent refueling trips. These are typically less expensive Level 1 chargers that take a few hours to fully recharge a battery, which is perfectly acceptable for charging a vehicle overnight. And since the average EV can travel 260 miles on a single charge, most people only need to plug their cars in once a day. The picture just doesn’t get any better for the future of gas stations.

Even if gas stations install fast chargers, people traveling long distances may be their main customers. This situation is already playing out in Norway, where about 90 percent of new cars sold are now electric or hybrid. While gas stations have moved quickly to install charging ports, many EV drivers in Norway are only visiting them on a monthly basis.

The rise of EVs could actually lead to a new generation of what was a gas station, but now a pit stop. Some private companies, for instance, are opening their own luxurious destinations with multiple charging stations. Electrify America plans to open a series of flagship, EV-focused travel lounges with solar canopies and event spaces that could offer valet services and curbside deliveries in California and New York later this year. Automakers are also experimenting with the idea of premium charging stations. In California, Tesla has already opened a charging hub for its vehicles that incorporates a lounge, an espresso bar, and free WIFI. Porsche and Audi are developing similar plans for stations of their own.

What can we learn from this story? What’s the take away?

For the consumer, it’s all about one word…convenience. But, with improvements to the nation’s charging networks, lower-priced EVs coming to market, and increasing range from battery technology advances, many barriers to EV ownership are showing signs of breaking down over time.

The days of having to drive to the corner gas station and wait in line to pay, then wait for the next pump to be free, is a process people have grown tired of. The EV offers a more ease of use and in the comfort of your home. 

As said from the outset, change is a constant. At one time the horse and buggy were the way to go. Who knows, the EV may face a similar fate somewhere down the road. 

I wonder what it may be. 

Well, there you go. That's life, I swear.

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