Gas stations: the end of the road? You may soon have to turn your head to refuel



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This is because for the next two decades, electric cars will turn the gas station business into a death spiral, and electric cars will be the default choice for all car owners.

Why? Because charging electric cars will be so much easier than recharging gasoline and diesel cars, writes The Guardian. This is not only because, for example, the British government will ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars from 2030.

Imagine going to the other side, replacing electric cars with fossil fuel power. You are writing a risk assessment for a new gas station. You want to dig a big hole in the ground in the middle of the city, put in some tanks and fill them with a large amount of highly flammable fuel.

Then you offer to ride a really powerful bomb and invite the audience at random. They will arrive in vehicles with hot engines. You will give them a really powerful pump that discharges a very flammable liquid. Without any maintenance, they will fill their hot vehicles with large amounts of highly flammable liquids, pay and go.

Would you sign for that? Do you think the Occupational Safety and Health Service will give you permission? The idea is that refueling cars with gasoline and diesel is dangerous, which is why we do it at specially designed centralized refueling points.

Power everywhere

Electricity, on the other hand, is already available almost everywhere. Where is your car now? Couldn’t it be near the power cord? Namely.

The only challenge is how to bring that electricity to the surface so that you can charge your battery with it. And you don’t have to be Tom Edison to fix it.

Electric vehicle charging

If you live in an apartment or house without a driveway, don’t worry. The goal is to have a charging point for electric vehicles (EV) in practically all car parks.

Pod Point, Eric Fairbairn’s electric vehicle charging company, wants to help Britain reorganize and install charging stations.

“There will come a time when you will hardly think about how and where to charge your car,” he predicts.

Of course, we are a long way from this utopia, and that should not surprise us.

We are just beginning the electric revolution: only 7%. new cars are electric and make up a small proportion of vehicles, so there is not a large market either. But change is happening quickly and investment in charging infrastructure comes with it.

There will be good profits when millions of us want to recharge, just as the age of the automobile began with the construction boom a century ago.

The first home charging technology will be for those who have driveways and who can run a charging cable to their electric cars. They can already install special charging points that charge the car battery overnight, often using the cheapest possible frequencies. It is usually a slow process. You’ll drive about 30 miles for every hour of charging, but why worry when most people still leave their car parked overnight and only pay a couple of euros per kilometer?

Some local authorities have started installing similar chargers on street lamps and designers are working on charging stations that can be installed on the sidewalk. Some workplaces already install these charging stations for their employees.

We will see many more of all these innovations in the coming years. And even now we see that some companies offer their customers to charge cars. In fact, the free charge is likely to be similar to free Wi-Fi. It will be a kind of bribe to lure you into stores.

The optimists of electric vehicles draw a future in which you can charge your car at any stop. The car will be charged while you sleep, work, shop, or watch a movie at the cinema. No matter what you do, the power will flow to your car. At the moment, says Eric Fairbairn, 97 percent. Electric vehicle charging will be carried out without petrol pump equivalents.

“Imagine that someone comes and fills your car with gasoline every night, so you can drive 302 miles every morning,” he says. “How often do you need something else?”

In the future, you will only need to stop at a gas station for long trips. You can charge the battery in 20-30 minutes and while charging, drink coffee and use the bathroom.

Death warrant

If this prediction is correct, a large proportion of the (8,380) UK service stations will face the death penalty. The decline of this industry can happen surprisingly fast. Think about it. As electric vehicles begin to take gasoline and diesel off the market, there will be fewer companies supplying fuel. Gas stations will stick to the wall.

This will make it a bit more difficult for gasoline and diesel car owners to find a service station, and the remaining operators may also feel the need to increase their prices to maintain profits.

Therefore, there will be far fewer and possibly more expensive service stations. And charging an electric car will get easier and easier. Also, as the market expands, it will be cheaper to buy electric cars.

You see, where it all goes: the more gas stations close, the more likely we are to collect electricity. In turn, more gas stations will be forced to close. And so. That’s why I called it the death spiral.

And don’t worry about where the electricity will come from to power these new cars. The National Grid says there will be no problem charging all the electric vehicles that will be traveling on the roads. In fact, even when everyone starts to drive electric cars, they don’t expect a huge increase in demand. They believe demand will only increase by 10 percent.

This is because we drive much less than we usually imagine. According to the Department of Transportation, the average trip by car is only 8.5 miles. And, as Isabelle Haigh, National Grid’s head of national control, explains, there is already enough capacity available in the system.

“Most of the load will not be at its peak, but it has been declining in recent years, so we are confident that there is enough power to meet the demand,” he says.

This is because the network is designed to meet peak demand times. For example, when we all have a kettle during an advertisement.

During the rest of the time, some generators remain idle. Electric vehicles will be able to use them, and since people often charge devices at night when demand is low, they are unlikely to increase peak demand.

Smart charging systems will help too. They will allow your charger to work with the network to determine the best time to charge your car.

The idea is to make sure you get the cheapest energy and help the grid smooth out the ups and downs in demand.

Smart charging also helps maximize the use of renewable resources, allowing drivers to take advantage of cheap and abundant electricity, such as on a windy day.

Spirituality sessions and 24-hour shops

However, the end of the gas station age should not be a cause for celebration. It is the only retail outlet left in a small town or town and a lifeline for many people.

So can gas stations find an alternative role? Jack Simpson thinks some will.

He turned an old gas station in Leeds into a plant shop / bar / music space / restaurant / art gallery and named it Hyde Park Book Club. There have even been sessions of spiritualism.

“People came to dinner and I said, ‘I’m so sorry, there’s a spiritualism session right now,'” Simpson said.

He says that a good location, a large lot, and spacious buildings make it a very flexible and adaptable place.

“I think that is also in keeping with twentieth century hipster fashion. Western cultures, ”he says.

Brian Madderson, president of the Fuel Retailers Association (PRA), is looking at things more realistically. PRA represents 5,500 independent fuel retailers, accounting for 70 percent. from all the sites. Madderson says the association’s members are well suited to the world of internal combustion engines.

Many are already investing in 24-hour stores, high-quality groceries and automatic car washes to increase their income, and he said they will continue to allow drivers to refuel gasoline and diesel vehicles for as long as possible.

He believes that the transition from gasoline and diesel to electricity will take decades. “These vehicles just won’t disappear overnight. Gasoline and diesel service stations will be necessary to maintain the country’s mobility after 2030, ”he says.

Can be. However, technological change can happen quickly and get in the way. Let us remember what happened to the horse and the carriage in the 19th century. and the twentieth century. at the intersection.

Some gas stations will certainly remain, for example, on the roads, but most likely many will follow the same path as the people Jack Simpson’s guests tried to reach in their spiritualism sessions, unless they find new ways. to earn money.



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