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McCharge: McDonalds Is Now Charging EVs

59 points by reddotX 7y ago

andrewstuart 7y ago
Wow this is bang on. Cars come to Maccas to get food, why not charge there too? And for MacDonalds, it brings new customers. What a great idea.
- im3w1l 7y ago
  I think the reasoning is the opposite. Someone is doing a long drive, maybe to get to the mountains in the north to go skiing. They need to stop and charge somewhere on the way. Why not get food too?
  - ccsalvesen 7y ago
    (Norwegian with Nissan Leaf) This is exactly what we do on a long drive. Stop to charge, try to convince the kids that there isn't any happy meals left. They are all out, we promise. No other burgers either.
dmckeon 7y ago
s{(Super-size)}{$1 and Super-charge} me.
- samb1729 7y ago
  what?
  - JasonFruit 7y ago
    I think it's supposed to be Awk.
crishoj 7y ago
Seems to be 50 kW chargers
Animats 7y ago
How much charge can you get in the time spent at a fast food outlet? This is the beginning of gas stations and oil companies feeling the fear. This week saw the first US gas station stop selling gasoline and switch to charging only.[1] Walmart is putting in charging stations. That makes a lot of sense. The amount of time spent at a Walmart is enough for a good charge.[2] [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/26/first-gas-station-to-ditch-oil-for-electric-vehicle-charging-now-open.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/26/first-gas-station-to-ditch-o... [2] https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2019/06/06/electrify-america-walmart-announce-completion-of-over-120-charging-stations-at-walmart-stores-nationwide-with-plans-for-further-expansion https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2019/06/06/electrify-...
- xbmcuser 7y ago
  With the new Tesla fast chargers you can get about 150miles in 10~12min. Which is about the time spent to buy food and leave at a fastfood restaurant.
- oh_sigh 7y ago
  Some people get range anxiety if it's cold out, or they made an abnormal trip, or if traffic will be bad. I have a supercharger visible from my office and anecdotally a lot of people come in for 10-20 mins at a time
- nroets 7y ago
  For 8 months I've been traveling in the US[1] and Europe[2] by bicycle. Most of the time I was camping and McDonalds was the most convenient place to charge my phone. I found that I could easily spend 2 hours per day there without getting bored. I didn't have a stove, so it was my warm meal on most days. I suspect a lot of underemployed Americans could adopt a similar routine to get their cars charged. 1: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/burgers https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/burgers 2: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/roads2rome https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/roads2rome
  - amelius 7y ago
    In Hong Kong, people sleep at the McDonald's: https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/community/article/2158365/number-people-sleeping-hong-kong-mcdonalds-branches https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/community/article/215836...
jakobegger 7y ago
I'm not familiar with EV charging prices, but this does seem a bit expensive. 2.5 SEK per minute is 0.23€ / 0.26USD. Is that for high speed DC charging? Anyway, to me the focus on high speed charging seems to be completely the wrong way to go about charging infrastructure. Our cars sit idle 95% of the day. Aside from long trips, why should we try to charge them in as little time as possible? Almost all the new charging stations they install around here offer high speed charging. They are extremely expensive to set up, because providing 50kW DC charging requires big expensive electronics. This leads to the problem that only very few charging stations are installed, and the charging stations have to charge by the minute to make sure that people only park there as short as possible. What if instead the city provided 5kW AC outlets next to every parking spot? Those would be much cheaper to install, the electronics needed for billing would be extremely cheap (an NFC reader, a microcontroller, and a relay won't cost much), and charging speed is not an issue for people who live or work there. You would just leave your car plugged in while you're at the office, or overnight. If you could top up 30kWh while you work that would be plenty for most people.
- speedplane 7y ago
  > Aside from long trips, why should we try to charge them in as little time as possible? ... What if instead the city provided 5kW AC outlets next to every parking spot? Those would be much cheaper to install, the electronics needed for billing would be extremely cheap[.] It's a lot easier to install a few high speed chargers than many thousands lower speed chargers.
  - rbf 7y ago
    Probably correct, however from a user perspective it’s much more convenient to charge when parked overnight or at work. Installing an ordinary AC charger is quite cheap, and the goal should be to have lots of these, to make EVs more practical then fossil fuel cars.
    - londons_explore 7y ago
      EV charging hardware is very expensive at the moment. A 100 Amp relay good for 10kW is < $2, yet the cheapest similar EV charging system is easily $1000. I imagine a future where the people who make streetlights just integrate a couple of sockets in the bottom of every streetlamp. Total human time to fit one to an existing streetlamp should be only 15 minutes or so, so they can be rolled out en-mass.
rbf 7y ago
In Norway McDonalds have chargers in many locations already (and significantly more EVs than Sweden)
- bald 7y ago
  In Germany there's also lots of McDonalds with chargers, some of them have already been there for 2 years or more.
newnewpdro 7y ago
This is brilliant, and something I've been expecting for some time now. Starbucks is next.
thrower123 7y ago
You could probably top up pretty well in the time it takes to get your food picked up from the drive-through. I don't know what it is lately, but McDonalds takes forever to make a burger now. At this point it isn't good, it isn't fast, and it isn't cheap.
- fyfy18 7y ago
  In Europe over the last few years they changed restaurants so all burgers are made on demand. The only advantage I see is outside of peak times your meal is fresher, and they potentially have less wastage. But as you say it has definately increased wait times.

59 points by reddotX 7y ago

Wow this is bang on. Cars come to Maccas to get food, why not charge there too? And for MacDonalds, it brings new customers. What a great idea.

im3w1l 7y ago
I think the reasoning is the opposite. Someone is doing a long drive, maybe to get to the mountains in the north to go skiing. They need to stop and charge somewhere on the way. Why not get food too?
- ccsalvesen 7y ago
  (Norwegian with Nissan Leaf) This is exactly what we do on a long drive. Stop to charge, try to convince the kids that there isn't any happy meals left. They are all out, we promise. No other burgers either.

dmckeon 7y ago

s{(Super-size)}{$1 and Super-charge} me.

samb1729 7y ago
what?
- JasonFruit 7y ago
  I think it's supposed to be Awk.

crishoj 7y ago

Seems to be 50 kW chargers

Animats 7y ago

How much charge can you get in the time spent at a fast food outlet? This is the beginning of gas stations and oil companies feeling the fear. This week saw the first US gas station stop selling gasoline and switch to charging only.[1] Walmart is putting in charging stations. That makes a lot of sense. The amount of time spent at a Walmart is enough for a good charge.[2] [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/26/first-gas-station-to-ditch-oil-for-electric-vehicle-charging-now-open.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/26/first-gas-station-to-ditch-o... [2] https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2019/06/06/electrify-america-walmart-announce-completion-of-over-120-charging-stations-at-walmart-stores-nationwide-with-plans-for-further-expansion https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2019/06/06/electrify-...

xbmcuser 7y ago
With the new Tesla fast chargers you can get about 150miles in 10~12min. Which is about the time spent to buy food and leave at a fastfood restaurant.
oh_sigh 7y ago
Some people get range anxiety if it's cold out, or they made an abnormal trip, or if traffic will be bad. I have a supercharger visible from my office and anecdotally a lot of people come in for 10-20 mins at a time
nroets 7y ago
For 8 months I've been traveling in the US[1] and Europe[2] by bicycle. Most of the time I was camping and McDonalds was the most convenient place to charge my phone. I found that I could easily spend 2 hours per day there without getting bored. I didn't have a stove, so it was my warm meal on most days. I suspect a lot of underemployed Americans could adopt a similar routine to get their cars charged. 1: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/burgers https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/burgers 2: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/roads2rome https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/roads2rome
- amelius 7y ago
  In Hong Kong, people sleep at the McDonald's: https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/community/article/2158365/number-people-sleeping-hong-kong-mcdonalds-branches https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/community/article/215836...

jakobegger 7y ago

I'm not familiar with EV charging prices, but this does seem a bit expensive. 2.5 SEK per minute is 0.23€ / 0.26USD. Is that for high speed DC charging? Anyway, to me the focus on high speed charging seems to be completely the wrong way to go about charging infrastructure. Our cars sit idle 95% of the day. Aside from long trips, why should we try to charge them in as little time as possible? Almost all the new charging stations they install around here offer high speed charging. They are extremely expensive to set up, because providing 50kW DC charging requires big expensive electronics. This leads to the problem that only very few charging stations are installed, and the charging stations have to charge by the minute to make sure that people only park there as short as possible. What if instead the city provided 5kW AC outlets next to every parking spot? Those would be much cheaper to install, the electronics needed for billing would be extremely cheap (an NFC reader, a microcontroller, and a relay won't cost much), and charging speed is not an issue for people who live or work there. You would just leave your car plugged in while you're at the office, or overnight. If you could top up 30kWh while you work that would be plenty for most people.

speedplane 7y ago
> Aside from long trips, why should we try to charge them in as little time as possible? ... What if instead the city provided 5kW AC outlets next to every parking spot? Those would be much cheaper to install, the electronics needed for billing would be extremely cheap[.] It's a lot easier to install a few high speed chargers than many thousands lower speed chargers.
- rbf 7y ago
  Probably correct, however from a user perspective it’s much more convenient to charge when parked overnight or at work. Installing an ordinary AC charger is quite cheap, and the goal should be to have lots of these, to make EVs more practical then fossil fuel cars.
  - londons_explore 7y ago
    EV charging hardware is very expensive at the moment. A 100 Amp relay good for 10kW is < $2, yet the cheapest similar EV charging system is easily $1000. I imagine a future where the people who make streetlights just integrate a couple of sockets in the bottom of every streetlamp. Total human time to fit one to an existing streetlamp should be only 15 minutes or so, so they can be rolled out en-mass.

rbf 7y ago

In Norway McDonalds have chargers in many locations already (and significantly more EVs than Sweden)

bald 7y ago
In Germany there's also lots of McDonalds with chargers, some of them have already been there for 2 years or more.

newnewpdro 7y ago

This is brilliant, and something I've been expecting for some time now. Starbucks is next.

thrower123 7y ago

You could probably top up pretty well in the time it takes to get your food picked up from the drive-through. I don't know what it is lately, but McDonalds takes forever to make a burger now. At this point it isn't good, it isn't fast, and it isn't cheap.

fyfy18 7y ago
In Europe over the last few years they changed restaurants so all burgers are made on demand. The only advantage I see is outside of peak times your meal is fresher, and they potentially have less wastage. But as you say it has definately increased wait times.