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> Such “destination” facilities can offer […] electric vehicle charging This seems like the most likely reason to me. It's a way to hold on to land in a way th

by Lammy 3y ago

> Such “destination” facilities can offer […] electric vehicle charging This seems like the most likely reason to me. It's a way to hold on to land in a way that normalizes gas-station-like traffic patterns without the "gas station" stigma. They can be easily converted in the future once electric cars are a large enough percentage of cars that everyone will come to accept fueling as a 30-minute activity instead of a 30-second activity. If they tried to just buy land and keep it empty they would have a hell of a time convincing NIMBY types to tolerate the introduction of charger traffic patterns where none existed in the meantime.

smileysteve 3y ago
Possibly, and carwash and charging are value add to the consumer. If you wash your car for 5 minutes after your weekly 30 minute super charge, and before or after every long trip, you're going to have a nice looking car.
UncleEntity 3y ago
IDK, I used to drive all over the Phoenix valley pre-covid in my cab and most of new business construction I would see was either a car wash or coffee shop. I was messing around on google maps one day and there was something crazy like seven starbucks within reasonable walking distance of my apartment including two in the same shopping center. I always thought the car wash construction boom had something to do with water conservation, Phoenix being in the desert, but apparently not.
- Lammy 3y ago
  Anecdote: I went to a Starbucks just today (in a Tesla!) that had a huge bank of superchargers outside and zero seating inside. I'm sure the beancounters love the idea of everyone using Starbucks as their 30-minute car-fueling-and-now-also-drinks stop. It solves all of the (from the corporate point of view) downsides of running an actual store with, like, chairs and shit. It practically guarantees each "seat" turns over in that amount of time since the act of showing up to use the charger implies they have somewhere else to be. Nobody's sat there for hours on their laptop. No problematic h̵o̵m̵e̵l̵e̵s̵s̵ ̵h̵o̵u̵s̵e̵l̵e̵s̵s̵ unhoused people shooting up in the restroom unless they happen to be living out of an $80000 car. Corporate wet dream lol

by Lammy 3y ago

smileysteve 3y ago

Possibly, and carwash and charging are value add to the consumer. If you wash your car for 5 minutes after your weekly 30 minute super charge, and before or after every long trip, you're going to have a nice looking car.

UncleEntity 3y ago

IDK, I used to drive all over the Phoenix valley pre-covid in my cab and most of new business construction I would see was either a car wash or coffee shop. I was messing around on google maps one day and there was something crazy like seven starbucks within reasonable walking distance of my apartment including two in the same shopping center. I always thought the car wash construction boom had something to do with water conservation, Phoenix being in the desert, but apparently not.

Lammy 3y ago
Anecdote: I went to a Starbucks just today (in a Tesla!) that had a huge bank of superchargers outside and zero seating inside. I'm sure the beancounters love the idea of everyone using Starbucks as their 30-minute car-fueling-and-now-also-drinks stop. It solves all of the (from the corporate point of view) downsides of running an actual store with, like, chairs and shit. It practically guarantees each "seat" turns over in that amount of time since the act of showing up to use the charger implies they have somewhere else to be. Nobody's sat there for hours on their laptop. No problematic h̵o̵m̵e̵l̵e̵s̵s̵ ̵h̵o̵u̵s̵e̵l̵e̵s̵s̵ unhoused people shooting up in the restroom unless they happen to be living out of an $80000 car. Corporate wet dream lol