Climate change: why is the gas station era coming to an end?

Imagine going in the opposite direction, replacing electric cars with ones that run on fossil fuels.

We have to prepare a risk assessment of the construction of the new station, dig a big hole in the ground in the middle of the city, put tanks and fill them with a huge amount of highly flammable fuel. Then install a really powerful pump and invite random members of the audience.

They will arrive in cars with hot engines, and the powerful pump that squirts the highly flammable liquid will supply them.

Without any supervision, they will use it to transport large amounts of highly flammable liquid to their hot car and they will pay you and drive cars.

Do you agree? Do you think health and safety will give the green light for this?

Here I am highlighting a specific point that refueling cars with gasoline and diesel is dangerous, and that is why we do it at central refueling points specially designed for this.

On the other hand, electricity is already omnipresent. Where is your car now? Do you think it might be near the power cable? Exactly, it still is.

The only challenge is how to deliver that electricity a few feet deep so that you can start charging your battery.

You don’t have to be Thomas Edison to solve this problem.

If you live in an apartment or a house, you have your own entrance. The goal is to have an electric vehicle (EV) charging station available in almost any parking space.

Pod Point, the electric car charging company owned by Eric Fairburn, wants to be part of this effort to restore power lines in Britain.

“You get to the point where recharging your car with electricity is no longer a problem,” predicts Eric Fairburn.

Of course, we are a long way from this utopia, and that shouldn’t be surprising.

We are at the start of the electric revolution: only 7% of new cars run on electricity and represent a small part of the cars on the road, so there is no huge market for electric car charging at the moment.

But, as I argued in my previous article, change is coming quickly and the investment in charging infrastructure goes with it.

And there will be nice profits to be made when millions of us want to charge our cars, just like there was a gas station boom at the dawn of the automobile age a century ago.

The first to benefit from home charging technology are those who have inlets in their homes that allow them to connect the power cable to their electric cars.

They can now install special home charging points that charge car batteries overnight from the home power source, often using the cheapest tariffs possible.

This is usually a slow process. And for every hour billed you’ll get about 30 miles of driving, but who cares when most people leave their cars parked overnight anyway and you pay so little?

Some local authorities are starting to install similar chargers in streetlights, designers are working on charging points that can be installed on the dock, and some workplaces are already installing chargers for their employees.

We will see more of all of these innovations in the years to come.

We have also started to see some companies setting up charging stations for their customers.

In fact, free shipping, like free Wi-Fi, is likely to turn into a small bribe to lure you into the store.

And electric car optimists paint a world where you can connect your car wherever you park it to a charging station, whether at home while you sleep, at work, while shopping, or at the movies.

No matter what job you do, the power will flow into your car.

At this point, according to Eric Fairburn, 97% of electric vehicle charging will be done away from gas stations.

“Imagine someone filling your car with gasoline every night so that you have enough horsepower to go 300 miles each morning, how many times a day will you need another charge? He said.

In this new world, you’ll never stop at a gas station until you’ve taken some truly epic long drives and charged your battery for 20-30 minutes while sipping your coffee and using the facilities.

If this prediction is correct, it is a death sentence for many of Britain’s 8,380 service stations.

The downturn in this industry can come surprisingly quickly. Think about it, when electric cars start cutting down on gasoline and diesel fuel, gas stations will be less active.

This will make it difficult for drivers of gasoline and diesel cars to find a gas station, and owners of the remaining stations may feel they have to raise their prices to survive.

Therefore, there will be fewer gas stations and possibly more expensive. In the meantime, charging your electric car will become easier and moreover, as the market grows, electric cars will become cheaper.

And you see where it’s going… the more gas stations that close, the more we’re all going to go electric. In return, more gas stations will be forced to close. This is why I called this process the cycle of death.

And don’t worry about the source of electricity to power all those new cars.

The National Grid says it will have no problem recharging any electric vehicles that will be on our roads.

In fact, the network does not expect a significant increase in demand as the increase is not expected to exceed 10% when everyone is driving electric cars.

That’s because we drive a lot less than we can imagine with an average car trip of just 8.4 miles, according to the Department of Transportation.

There is already a significant amount of reserve capacity built into the system, explains Isabelle Hay, head of national surveillance for the national grid.

“Most shipments will not be at peak times and peak demand has declined over the years, so we are very confident that there will be enough capacity to meet demand,” she said. declared.

Indeed, the network is designed to meet the most demanding moments such as the second half of the European Cup final.

The rest of the time some power plants sit idle and electric cars will be able to take advantage of this as people usually charge at night when demand is low, they are unlikely to increase peak demand at all.

Smart charging systems that allow your charger to communicate with the grid to determine the best time to charge your vehicle will also help.

The idea is to make sure you are getting the cheapest energy and also to help the grid reduce pressure spikes.

Smart charging also makes the most of renewable resources, allowing drivers to take advantage of the abundant and therefore cheap electricity available on a windy day, for example when large amounts of electricity are produced by wind power. .

However, the end of the gas station should not be a cause for celebration, as it is the only retail outlet that remains in some small towns and villages, and a lifeline for many people.

So can she play an alternate role? Jack Simpson thinks at least some of them will be able to.

He turned a former Leeds gas station into a book club he called the Hyde Park Book Club, complete with a botanical shop, pub, musical theater, restaurant, art gallery and even screenings. animation.

“People were coming to dinner and I had to apologize, there’s a session going on,” says Jack.

He says the central location, large front yard, and spacious buildings make it a very flexible place.

Brian Madeson, president of the Petroleum Retailers Association (BRA), is more realistic. BRA represents 5,500 independent fuel retailers representing 70 percent of the industry’s workforce, and Madeson says consortium members are starting to adjust to a post-internal combustion engine world.

Many are already investing in entire stores, high-quality prepared foods and automated car washes to increase their income, and he says they will continue to allow motorists to charge their gasoline and diesel cars for as long as possible.

He believes the switch from gasoline to diesel will take decades. “These vehicles will not just disappear from the roads overnight. Gasoline and diesel stations will be essential in sustaining the country beyond 2030.”

However, technological change can be very rapid and very disruptive. Remember what happened to the horse and cart at the turn of the twentieth century.

Some gas stations will certainly live, those on the freeways for example, but many will likely take the same route as the guests of Jack Simpson during their sessions, unless they find new ways to make money.