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> There's a reason you don't see immigrants from all over the world coming to the US to open charging stations the way you saw them opening gas stations. As th

> There's a reason you don't see immigrants from all over the world coming to the US to open charging stations the way you saw them opening gas stations. As the other commenter said, AFAIK, the majority of a gas station's income comes from the convenience store, no? Profit margins on gas are really low - Google says it's around 2%.

bobthepanda 2y ago
I imagine there are additional factors. * many prime charging station locations are where the gas stations currently are. The high installation costs and long charging times mean you’d lose money swapping them 1:1 right now, and most gas stations are already optimized to hold the max pumps per spot of land. * it is challenging to find new locations not least because cities have found out that gas stations are pretty problematic uses of land when it comes to neighborhood desirability, traffic, etc. so many are loth to approve new charging locations.
- dylan604 2y ago
  The cons of a gas station in the neighborhood are when it's a convenient store with pumps. The sale of lotto, beer, smokes, and low cost food attract it's own crowd that the NIMBYs do not like. Switch that to a storeless unmanned set of pumps, and all of that goes away. I've seen a few of these types of locations around town. Just an awning with a few pumps under it. That's pretty much what all of the electric charge locations look like. Just "rent" spots at existing places on the highway with parking nearest the main road (which is typically the least desired spots in the lot). Pretty much any hotel would be a good candidate.
  - bobthepanda 2y ago
    Eh there are a ton of other downsides. By their nature, high-throughput charging stations with lots of curb cuts are bad for walkability, eyes on the street, etc. that people want in their neighborhoods. For example many cities now ban new drive throughs. And the convenience stores are the thing that makes the money at gas stations.
    - bsder 2y ago
      > And the convenience stores are the thing that makes the money at gas stations. Because the gas is expensive, you need to hold inventory (and have a tank that needs to be insured and inspected and ...) and a lot of the profit is going to huge oil companies. If you are running chargers, there is no inventory and the cost is whatever the electricty costs are. I suspect that chargers could actually be a profit center as opposed to gas pumps which barely break even and sometimes go negative in profits.
      - bobthepanda 2y ago
        EV stations have a lot more competition that doesn’t need to turn a profit; a person’s home. Nobody has home gas tanks to fill up their car. I don’t know many people buying electric without having a home charger.
        borski 2y ago
        Literally anyone who lives in an apartment.
        Dylan16807 2y ago
        That's a pretty big exaggeration. It's not easy to install your own in an apartment, but increasing numbers of apartments have chargers and most apartments could have them.
        borski 2y ago
        Sure, they are slowly getting added, but the incentives are pretty low. The vast majority of apartment-dwellers charge either at work (if they are lucky enough to work for a large enough company that builds chargers) or at a public charging station
        bobthepanda 2y ago
        that's the thing, i have a lot of friends who are in apartments, and know very few of them going fully EV

bobthepanda 2y ago

I imagine there are additional factors. * many prime charging station locations are where the gas stations currently are. The high installation costs and long charging times mean you’d lose money swapping them 1:1 right now, and most gas stations are already optimized to hold the max pumps per spot of land. * it is challenging to find new locations not least because cities have found out that gas stations are pretty problematic uses of land when it comes to neighborhood desirability, traffic, etc. so many are loth to approve new charging locations.

dylan604 2y ago
The cons of a gas station in the neighborhood are when it's a convenient store with pumps. The sale of lotto, beer, smokes, and low cost food attract it's own crowd that the NIMBYs do not like. Switch that to a storeless unmanned set of pumps, and all of that goes away. I've seen a few of these types of locations around town. Just an awning with a few pumps under it. That's pretty much what all of the electric charge locations look like. Just "rent" spots at existing places on the highway with parking nearest the main road (which is typically the least desired spots in the lot). Pretty much any hotel would be a good candidate.
- bobthepanda 2y ago
  Eh there are a ton of other downsides. By their nature, high-throughput charging stations with lots of curb cuts are bad for walkability, eyes on the street, etc. that people want in their neighborhoods. For example many cities now ban new drive throughs. And the convenience stores are the thing that makes the money at gas stations.
  - bsder 2y ago
    > And the convenience stores are the thing that makes the money at gas stations. Because the gas is expensive, you need to hold inventory (and have a tank that needs to be insured and inspected and ...) and a lot of the profit is going to huge oil companies. If you are running chargers, there is no inventory and the cost is whatever the electricty costs are. I suspect that chargers could actually be a profit center as opposed to gas pumps which barely break even and sometimes go negative in profits.
    - bobthepanda 2y ago
      EV stations have a lot more competition that doesn’t need to turn a profit; a person’s home. Nobody has home gas tanks to fill up their car. I don’t know many people buying electric without having a home charger.
      - borski 2y ago
        Literally anyone who lives in an apartment.
        Dylan16807 2y ago
        That's a pretty big exaggeration. It's not easy to install your own in an apartment, but increasing numbers of apartments have chargers and most apartments could have them.
        borski 2y ago
        Sure, they are slowly getting added, but the incentives are pretty low. The vast majority of apartment-dwellers charge either at work (if they are lucky enough to work for a large enough company that builds chargers) or at a public charging station
        bobthepanda 2y ago
        that's the thing, i have a lot of friends who are in apartments, and know very few of them going fully EV