Charging is an amenity. Charging does not have amenities.
The last place I want to recharge is something like a gas station. Charging should never have amenities. Charging is an amenity at something else. said Brad Templeton in a recent comment on one of my posts and i can’t agree more…for 90% of all chargings.
At the same time Robert Vandiene argued the opposite: fuel brands will win EV charging because they have strong brands, prime locations and services built around the stop. And then he made a really strong point that stuck with me. When he worked at OKQ8, he used to say their real competitor was not the pump next door. It was the café down the road. This is where it connects to Brads statement.
That insight is exactly why i think the conclusion doesn’t hold for charging. At a petrol station, fuel brings people in because fuel only exists there. The coffee is secondary. You stop for fuel, and maybe you grab a coffee. The stop builds the business because the fuel forces the stop. If you do not need to fuel you grab a better coffee elsewhere.
With electricity, i think that logic reverses. People come for coffee, for shopping, for work. The car charges while they do what they came for. The business brings people in. Charging just happens alongside it.
Making it easy with simple payments, no roaming surprises, clear pricing, will boost that as it applies at the motorway HPC hub and at the parking spot behind the restaurant. The difference is who drives the traffic.
Don’t get me wrong, fast charging hubs along motorways are necessary and will remain so. For long trips, for commercial transport, for the exception when you actually need to stop specifically to charge. And in those situations, good coffee, clean facilities and a strong brand absolutely matter.
But that’s the exception for most people most of the time. We use our cars for parking far more than for driving. Charging should follow parking. The 90% of everyday life where the car sits somewhere anyway, that’s where charging belongs. Invisible, passive, an amenity that comes with the place you chose for entirely different reasons.
The industry keeps building for the 10% and ignoring the 90%. Dedicated stations, big screens, loyalty programmes, lounge areas. That’s destination thinking applied to what should be an everyday utility. Although I see a shift happening right now in the industry. In the Nordics this is already happening. Norlys, Clever, OK and others are embedding charging into everyday locations where people already are.
And i think this is the next big game for companies that are already strong in residential charging like Zaptec, not leaving this to the established big CPOs only.
Charging is an amenity. It does not need amenities. Unless you’re on the 10% trip. Then it deserves good ones.
Charging is an amenity
