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When Americans steer their electric vehicles off the highway and into shiny new charging stations — many paid for with federal tax dollars — they’re likely to find them in a curiously familiar place: the gas station.
More than half of the charging stations being built so far from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law are rising at truck stops and gasoline stations, according to data exclusively provided to E&E News by EVAdoption, an EV data consultancy. In essence, the law’s $7.5 billion pot for charging is reinforcing the very fossil-fuel infrastructure that the EV era would seem to consign to oblivion.
That raises the prospect that money intended to cut emissions could throw a lifeline to companies that traditionally have raised them. Even so, many experts say the two industries are a natural fit.
“I’ve always kind of assumed that the combination of fueling station and convenience stop would dominate,” said Loren McDonald, the founder of EVAdoption. “They’re safe. They’re well lit. They have bathrooms on site. They have restaurants and stores. They check a lot of the boxes.”
. . .
“Most fuel retailers are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and provide restrooms, food and beverage options,” NATSO said in its comment. It also argued it has the incentive to overcome the glitches that have bedeviled charging stations and sapped the public’s confidence in charging infrastructure.
‘‘We are conscripted to make sure that the customer experience is pleasant,” said Fialkov. “You don’t see a lot of broken gas pumps, and the reason is that the guy who runs the station loses money when the pump isn’t working.”
. . .
Although the major fueling chains are winning the funding race, many say that building an EV-charging business will be a challenge.
“It’s a rough case,” said Tim Langenkamp, a vice president at Pilot Flying J, which is aiming to install about 200 charging plazas at its stations by the end of this year, in collaboration with the automaker General Motors and charging provider EVgo.
“The NEVI support is an important way of making the economics … better,” he added.
A chief problem for funding recipients is one that might never occur to an EV driver: A bank of charging stalls can make an electricity bill rocket through the roof.
Gasoline fluctuates a lot in price, but gas stations manage that by changing what they charge customers per gallon. That construct collapses when the fuel is electricity.
The reason is that the price of electricity can get volatile when businesses use a lot of it. If many EV drivers plug in to high-powered bank of chargers at the same time, it can result in a financial penalty from the electric utility, which needs electricity usage to be stable. This penalty, called a demand charge, makes it difficult for gas stations to project if EV chargers will be moneymakers or money losers.
“Demand charges is high on the list of things that keep me up at night,” said Kim Okafor, the general manager of zero-emission solutions at Trillium Energy Solutions, the charging subsidiary of truck stop Love’s.
https://www.eenews.net/articles/big-winner-in-bidens-ev-charging-revolution-gas-stations/
More than half of the charging stations being built so far from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law are rising at truck stops and gasoline stations, according to data exclusively provided to E&E News by EVAdoption, an EV data consultancy. In essence, the law’s $7.5 billion pot for charging is reinforcing the very fossil-fuel infrastructure that the EV era would seem to consign to oblivion.
That raises the prospect that money intended to cut emissions could throw a lifeline to companies that traditionally have raised them. Even so, many experts say the two industries are a natural fit.
“I’ve always kind of assumed that the combination of fueling station and convenience stop would dominate,” said Loren McDonald, the founder of EVAdoption. “They’re safe. They’re well lit. They have bathrooms on site. They have restaurants and stores. They check a lot of the boxes.”
. . .
“Most fuel retailers are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and provide restrooms, food and beverage options,” NATSO said in its comment. It also argued it has the incentive to overcome the glitches that have bedeviled charging stations and sapped the public’s confidence in charging infrastructure.
‘‘We are conscripted to make sure that the customer experience is pleasant,” said Fialkov. “You don’t see a lot of broken gas pumps, and the reason is that the guy who runs the station loses money when the pump isn’t working.”
. . .
Although the major fueling chains are winning the funding race, many say that building an EV-charging business will be a challenge.
“It’s a rough case,” said Tim Langenkamp, a vice president at Pilot Flying J, which is aiming to install about 200 charging plazas at its stations by the end of this year, in collaboration with the automaker General Motors and charging provider EVgo.
“The NEVI support is an important way of making the economics … better,” he added.
A chief problem for funding recipients is one that might never occur to an EV driver: A bank of charging stalls can make an electricity bill rocket through the roof.
Gasoline fluctuates a lot in price, but gas stations manage that by changing what they charge customers per gallon. That construct collapses when the fuel is electricity.
The reason is that the price of electricity can get volatile when businesses use a lot of it. If many EV drivers plug in to high-powered bank of chargers at the same time, it can result in a financial penalty from the electric utility, which needs electricity usage to be stable. This penalty, called a demand charge, makes it difficult for gas stations to project if EV chargers will be moneymakers or money losers.
“Demand charges is high on the list of things that keep me up at night,” said Kim Okafor, the general manager of zero-emission solutions at Trillium Energy Solutions, the charging subsidiary of truck stop Love’s.
https://www.eenews.net/articles/big-winner-in-bidens-ev-charging-revolution-gas-stations/
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