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Comment by philips | Hacker News Reader

Gas stations going insolvent because of EVs and the effects is something I have been documenting at https://postpump.org

The problem is that I think outside of highway and freeway infrastructure most stations are doomed. You simply don’t want to stay in a 711 parking lot that long.

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There’s a lot of people who seem to think an ev charging area will look basically like a gas station with the pumps switched. That is not going to happen.

A ev charging area will be a coffee shop or lounge, something that will be nice to hang around for 20 minutes. Gambling states should be ecstatic at the prospect.

Gas stations as they look today are not going to exist except to service legacy ice vehicles

In fact, what's to stop the coffee shop from becoming the charging station? Nearly any parking lot could be retrofit!

This bill. This bill is trying to stop it.

The challege will be that nobody wants to spend an extra 20-30 minutes hanging around someplace doing something that they weren't needing or planning to do anyway. For example I'm not going to want to start hanging out at an EV coffee shop when I don't go to coffee shops now.

Pretty much the only time one should need to charge away from home is when driving a long distance, in which case a 20 min nap, a stroll to get the blood flowing, or a coffee every three to four hours of driving is probably a good thing. It’s like the “eating your vegetables thing” some people won’t pay to order them but they’ll eat them if they come as a side.

Won't it be a good thing for 711 and walkable stores in the area? Convenience stores can come up with ideas for people to pass their time beyond shopping and coffee/food. Maybe game kiosks like you see in bars that allow people to stand and stretch their legs instead of sitting in a car? They don't take up that much space. Maybe even a couple of restaurant style tables for people to eat, drink or just hang out.

The problem is that as these gas stations go insolvent the land will be a liability instead of an asset because you have to cleanup the tanks and likely will find damage to soil or ground water.

See https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/agi...

Except a gas station can currently serve X people per hour with fuel tanks but Y per hour with electric charging. Under the assumption that Y is not only less than X but substantially less than X, they'd need to find a lot of methods to extract money form those customers, which ends up with their own risks and costs.

There are a lot of chains we traditionally think of as "gas stations" which operate stores which don't sell gas. These stores are opening more and more locations which don't sell gas. Especially in cities where gas stations are difficult or impossible to open.

> You simply don’t want to stay in a 711 parking lot that long.

From what I can tell, people are going to be charging at restaurants or stores, if not at home. Charging stations are constantly being put in at grocery stores around where I live.

Plus, you don't need to charge completely at every stop. Apparently the IONIQ 5 can do 10-80% in 17 minutes at a DC fast charger. So most people could probably get a 30-40% charge in the time it takes to go in and pick up a drink or something.

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