How the transition to EVs will change the service station as we know it
When asked what prevents them from buying a fully electric vehicle, many people express concerns about where to recharge it when out on the road, even though experience shows that 90% of the time this can be done at home; assuming, of course, they have a garage or easy access to a charging point.
For the remaining 10% of the time, except for Tesla owners, who have access to an ever-growing network of rapid, easy to use supercharging stations, the availability of charging stations is seen as a major obstacle to the spread of EVs. In short, there are still far fewer charging points than gas stations. However, given that one in five vehicles sold this year will be an EV and that more and more governments are considering forcing gas stations to offer fast-charging points as well, where does the future point?
It is important to bear in mind that several factors are a play here: first, more and more EVs will be sold in the run up to bans on the sale of diesel and petrol vehicles. Second, in an increasingly competitive market, the margins on fuel sales will tend to decrease. And thirdly, and very importantly, the average time required to fill a fuel tank is still significantly less than that needed for a quick battery recharge, which we can estimate at between twenty minutes and half an hour (vehicles…
