I don't buy the advantage of adding charging networks to existing gas stations being cheaper.

For one, it'll probably cost the same as for existing retail stores to install charging points. But all existing retail stores have the extra benefit of saving you time while you shop, do laundry, get your hair done, etc.

I disagree. A lot of gas stations are conveniently located near the highway. You may think that not everyone drives on the highway - but people who do lots of road trips or drive continuously for work or have an hour long commute make up a disproportionate amount of the driving.

It's probably true a lot of upper-middle class people now would prefer to charge while getting some shopping in - but presumably in the future people will just want convenience. I could see a chain like Costco or Target adding EV stations to every parking lot - but I think for the most part gas stations are located where the cars are.

(Also, the scale of this seems good and a good way to make investors feel good about a hedge, but that's beside the initial point)

A highway charge takes about twenty minutes. Charging stations at restaurants and coffee shops do much better than those at gas stations.

Gas stations are almost always near other things, including restaurants.

This is probably highly variable. None of the gas stations I can think of off the top of my head are near anything particularly nice nor interesting, and often are pretty inaccessible if you discount the road.

Commonly gas stations here on interstate highways are complimented with a number of restaurants, from fast food to sit down.

Seems fairly easy to turn a gas station store into a store and coffee shop.

We have this in Germany in pretty much every gas station: I never sit down for a coffee there if I can avoid it. The atmosphere of looking at gas pumps and lorries while slurping my coffee just doesn't cut it for me.

Target and Meijer are not uncommon supercharger locations for Tesla. Works well on road trips.

Retail stores operate ludicrously thin margins, particularly in the USA where there was a retail apocalypse already happening because there is way too much retail per capita even before you consider the effects of online shopping. where are they supposed to get the money for installing lots of chargers in their lots?

It's a mutually beneficial arrangement. AFAICT the charging networks will set up a charging station for free, although you may be on the hook for some incidentals.

I'm not sure I understand the retail store charging points.

Very few are going to need charging when doing a shopping run. So why not just charge at home?

Those not having a good over-night or at-work charging on the other hand I do understand. But how many that don't have either of that can and will buy an EV in the first place?

This point comes up a lot. About 1 in 8 Americans live in apartments where charging may prove a challenge.[1] And this number will only increase in the future. This demographic will also be living closer to city centers where retail charging points will be an incentive while eating out or doing errands.

[1] https://www.naahq.org/news-publications/units/june-2017/arti...

My point is that they are least likely to buy an EV.

In time, maybe, yes. But I don't think the deciding factor for these people (myself included) are charging stations at the mall.

I suspect these companies saw elon musk on battery day say "yeah, this is happening".

Now they want to make sure they have a plan if gasoline usage, er, tanks.

The oil companies don’t own gas stations. Those are privately owned with franchising agreements.

Depends on the supermajor. I know BP for sure has a retail arm where they own gas stations in addition to franchises. Same for shell.

the franchisee has a profit motive too. If adding a charging station brings in more revenue - I don't see why the franchisee would refuse.

Also, factor in that charging times are longer for EV. This means they'll spend more money at the in-station cafe/convenience store vs the avg IC car driver.

I can see that. Gas at gas stations is more of a loss leader, the real profits are in alcohol and tobacco.

franchising agreements can force people to add new products like the McRib, or charging stations or lose supply.

> Also, they already have the advantage of real estate. They know that they can add a charging network cheaply in their gas stations than a new player in town building one.

Then why buy up charging networks? Why not just develop their own? Genuine question.

It’s a good way to bootstrap. They will also acquire the technical know how to retrofit parts of their gas stations with EV charging stations. They either way need to spend money so why not just spend it to acquire the tech and infrastructure to gain time.

As far as acquisitions go this makes so much business sense. Same domain, complementary user base and technology, and with great growth opportunity.

> They know that they can add a charging network cheaply in their gas stations

Maybe a dumb question, but is it safe to put a bunch of EV chargers at gas stations? I don’t think I’ve seen any so far.

There is power at gas stations already, there is in fact power at the pumps. They also let you drive your car up to the pump, use your cell phone, and wear clothing that generates static electricity.

Most gas stations in Oslo have fast chargers, between 50 and 300kW each.

I’ve seen them installed on a few stations already - they are in the parking areas, not filling areas - if fume concentrations are high enough to light up there then there are way bigger issues with the station :)

I'm not an electrical engineer, but from watching this video [0], there seem to be about a million and a half different mechanisms to prevent sparks from chargers.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMxB7zA-e4Y