Gas stations have been around since 1905 when the first one was built in St. Louis, Missouri. Since then, it’s been pumping gas to all kinds of vehicles and even offers a place where you can have a cup of coffee or buy snacks for the road. However, new generations of cars are being made that would probably phase out your favorite filling station — the Electric Cars.
Gas stations may not go away today or tomorrow, but its days are almost certainly numbered with the breakneck speed of technology.
Electric cars can be charged anywhere
Aside from being less harmful to the environment, an electric car’s other major advantage is that it can be charged anywhere, whether at your home or at the office where you work.
For most electric car owners, they would probably prefer to charge their vehicles at home.
The Chevy Bolt can go as far as 48 miles on a single 12-hour, 120-volt charge. Charging it to a 240-volt outlet would cut that charging time in half.
There are companies that offer devices that would maximize charging vehicles at home. ChargePoint offers a charging station for as low as $450. Tesla, on the other hand, offers personal wall chargers at $500.
More charging stations in the future
Some companies are now offering Charging Stations for their employees as benefits. ChargePoint vice president of business development Simon Lonsdale said, “It’s interesting that for basically the price of providing free coffee to your employee you can also offer them EV charging,” according to a report by Engadget.
Lonsdale also added that this trend can make traction and be offered by more companies in the future. According to some surveys given to employees, having an EV charging station is one of the top three benefits that they want to see at their offices.
EV charging stations at retail parking lots
Retailers, such as Target, already have charging stations for its customers.
This move by Target is extremely beneficial as it makes customers hang around their store a lot longer while the vehicles are being charged. The longer customers stay, the more likely they would spend more money in the store.
Free charging stations can also attract a lot more customers.
Tesla now has over 9,000 charging stations at retail locations, resorts, and restaurants.
Meanwhile, ChargePoint has charging stations at 7,000 businesses across the globe. This means that there will be more charging stations in the future.
However, there is one advantage to still having a gas station – for road trips.
Anyone on a road trip knows that it’s very important to stay on the road as much as possible. Having an electric car makes this difficult as owners would have to wait for several hours for their battery to fill up, making their road trip a lot longer than it has to be.
Do you think the electric cars will phase out gas stations in the future? Let us know in the comment section down below and don’t forget to like and share this article.