Has anyone charged up at a gas station?

[dhrivnak]

I have but the station had at least Level 2 charging.

 

[James Anders]

Agree. Besides gas stations are far more ubiquitous. Once a couple of chains start doing this, e.g, Royal Farms, WaWa, it will catch-on and as you say - be a game changer..

Yeah, I'd much rather go to a gas station than some charging station behind a closed restaurant.

Actually, I was thinking Wawa stores as I wrote this. They would be a perfect, forward thinking company to try something like this.

 

[ecarfan]

The Tesla Superchargers in Superior Montana are located a gas station. I used it last August. It felt kind of weird charging just 30 ft away from people filling up their ICE cars.

 

[James Anders]

The Tesla Superchargers in Superior Montana are located a gas station. I used it last August. It felt kind of weird charging just 30 ft away from people filling up their ICE cars.

And actually, if you want to change the hearts and minds of people this is one way to do it.

 

[snellenr]

That is the one people complain about having a bad atmosphere.

It is a bit gritty, to be sure -- especially after our prior stops in Corsicana & Ardmore -- but I appreciated the kWh nonetheless...

 

[brianman]

Add to that I don't think the charger goes down to lower than 5 amps, so it won't charge up a Tesla. The Minnesota State Fair once had this booth of stationary bicycles to generate electricity for a radio station. It was amazing. All that greasy food on a stick turning into talk radio.

Maybe they should install "Humanchargers" around fitness facilities.

 

[brianman]

And actually, if you want to change the hearts and minds of people this is one way to do it.

I get a lot of looks from the nearby gas station when charging in Kennewick. And a few Tesla Time conversations as well.

 

[Twiglett]

Flying J in Texas has started on that, looks like two of them are getting superchargers. But they are a truck stop rather than just a gas station.
I heard rumors about Buckees getting SCs as well, but nothing seemed to come of that.
[edited to correct autocorrect]

 

[PaulusdB]

The moment I got my Model S in November 2013, I started to look for charging opportunities at gas stations, car washes, tyre shop, etc. Close to all of those have the European standard 16A 400V 3-phase wall outlets/connectors.
Connecting the European style UMC gives you 11 kW power (just over 50 km/h or 30 mile/h charging speed) on those. From other Dutch owners I learned how they survived on Italian trips in the early days by using exactly that type of connectivety from the spare espresso machine that every gas station, truck stop and supermarket has. (Bring the appropriate 16A extension cord yourself.)

 

[abasile]

Flying J in Texas has started on that, looks like two of them are getting superchargers.

Wise move on their part. Selling fast food, etc., probably nets them more money than gasoline. People who have to wait for their charging to complete are more likely to make store purchases.

I'm not so sure about Level 2 (AC) charging, though. I doubt most urban/suburban gas stations would want to tie up parking spaces for potentially hours. Rural stations may have extra parking, but no one is going to want to wait long for a charge unless there's a good destination that's super close. And most nice, rural destinations aren't next door to gas stations.

 

[James Anders]

Wise move on their part. Selling fast food, etc., probably nets them more money than gasoline. People who have to wait for their charging to complete are more likely to make store purchases.

I'm not so sure about Level 2 (AC) charging, though. I doubt most urban/suburban gas stations would want to tie up parking spaces for potentially hours. Rural stations may have extra parking, but no one is going to want to wait long for a charge unless there's a good destination that's super close. And most nice, rural destinations aren't next door to gas stations.

I think those gas stations that have convenience stores would make sense.

 

[TaoJones]

Flying J in Texas has started on that, looks like two of them are getting superchargers. But they are a truck stop rather than just a gas station.
I heard rumors about Buckees getting SCs as well, but nothing seemed to come of that.
[edited to correct autocorrect]

That is extremely good news about Flying J/Pilot getting SCs - I've long suggested that truck stops, er, travel plazas are a no-brainer great choice for SCs - in fact, a contract with one or more regional or national truck stop chains (with opportunities for any of the independents as well) would go a looooong way toward closing the I-10 Supercharger Wasteland gap from Tucson to San Antonio as well as gaps elsewhere. One of the SCs on a Florida toll road is at a travel plaza, although that's a tad different from being a standard truck stop.

There's a Chevron halfway through Oregon (south of Eugene, anyway) whose owner/franchisee happily enabled with a Chademo/L2 combo - he was completely stoked about it as for him, the upsides included first-mover advantage in the area.

 

[glenhurst]

I think gas stations will actually die out in the long run. Any business can put in a charger, and not just those pointless Level 2 chargers, but 50kw DC fast chargers, for a relatively modest investment. They don't require any employees to manage them, and while they're not very good money-makers themselves--no one will get rich from owning chargers--they do pay for themselves. So, shopping malls and 24-hour grocery stores can easily install them--the same cannot be said for installing gas pumps (although some grocery stores do offer that now). Given a choice, I'd rather go to a large grocery store than a gas station (although one could argue that at a certain scale they're not a whole lot different).

 

[Twiglett]

I think gas stations will actually die out in the long run. Any business can put in a charger, and not just those pointless Level 2 chargers, but 50kw DC fast chargers, for a relatively modest investment. They don't require any employees to manage them, and while they're not very good money-makers themselves--no one will get rich from owning chargers--they do pay for themselves. So, shopping malls and 24-hour grocery stores can easily install them--the same cannot be said for installing gas pumps (although some grocery stores do offer that now). Given a choice, I'd rather go to a large grocery store than a gas station (although one could argue that at a certain scale they're not a whole lot different).

The upside for getting SC's installed is that the investment from the owner is just the land, everything else seems to come from Tesla

 

[supratachophobia]

Effingham, IL. 8 bays at the gas station. Clean bathrooms and nice store inside. I always buy a drink to support the cause.

 

[Mark Vallaster]

There's a Sheetz in Altoona that I've used twice. Chademo. Once successfully. the second time the charger was broken.

 

[mmccord]

There's a Sheetz in Altoona that I've used twice. Chademo. Once successfully. the second time the charger was broken.

Sheetz has lots of these, state college, Pa and Harrisburg pa have been particularly useful to me. Much happier with the Harrisburg SC now, but sheetz made my cross PA trips last year possible.