Is this necessarily a good idea? Because of the fundamentals of how EV charging differs from filling up gasoline - the former being a fairly slow process, possibly taking as much as an hour, and the latter taking mere minutes - the facilities around them should be designed differently to account for that difference.
Combining charging facilities with places you naturally park your vehicle for some extended time has generally been wise, for example workplace parking, parking at home and supermarkets. I’d guess this likely covers basically the whole usecase for local trips for most car owners. This then leaves long-distance trips, where you’d want something closer to a truck stop facility than a gas station, where you can have a meal, go to the bathroom and maybe even take a shower, passing the time while waiting for your vehicle to charge.
Forcing most gas stations to install chargers neglects the difference between EVs and ICEs in a bad way, and is arguably wasteful. What should be done in its place is to successively replace existing gas stations with other more productive uses, and build appropriate charging facilities for EVs where they make sense.
Gas stations in Germany are not making much money with the gas sales themselves. The main companies behind them, like Shell, BP and co. do but the stations are usually franchised. They mostly make their money by doubling as a shop that is open atearly and late hours and on sundays, as many German muncipalities ban other shops from being open then.
So people often also buy something, or particularly in the morning get some breakfast and a coffee. Perfect time to charge the car a bit.
Is this necessarily a good idea? Because of the fundamentals of how EV charging differs from filling up gasoline - the former being a fairly slow process, possibly taking as much as an hour, and the latter taking mere minutes - the facilities around them should be designed differently to account for that difference.
Combining charging facilities with places you naturally park your vehicle for some extended time has generally been wise, for example workplace parking, parking at home and supermarkets. I’d guess this likely covers basically the whole usecase for local trips for most car owners. This then leaves long-distance trips, where you’d want something closer to a truck stop facility than a gas station, where you can have a meal, go to the bathroom and maybe even take a shower, passing the time while waiting for your vehicle to charge.
Forcing most gas stations to install chargers neglects the difference between EVs and ICEs in a bad way, and is arguably wasteful. What should be done in its place is to successively replace existing gas stations with other more productive uses, and build appropriate charging facilities for EVs where they make sense.
Gas stations in Germany are not making much money with the gas sales themselves. The main companies behind them, like Shell, BP and co. do but the stations are usually franchised. They mostly make their money by doubling as a shop that is open atearly and late hours and on sundays, as many German muncipalities ban other shops from being open then.
So people often also buy something, or particularly in the morning get some breakfast and a coffee. Perfect time to charge the car a bit.