As the United States continues to embrace the electric vehicle market, a couple of retail outlets will have charging stations for said vehicles available for customers to use while grabbing a cup of coffee.
Both the coffee chain Starbucks and Ikea, a furniture outlet also known for selling food and refreshments, will be partnering with electric car charging network companies, such as the Electrify America charging network, to install chargers outside the outlets as a means to make charging more available across the U.S., according to Crain’s Detroit Business on Tuesday.
“Get a little coffee, hang out, listen to music,” said Gary Silberg, KPMG’s global automotive sector leader. “If you can charge your car at the same time, why not?”
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Ikea is partnering with Electrify America and Electrify Commercial to install 200 chargers across 25 different locations. The first locations are expected to open by late 2022 and to be completed by the end of 2023, the outlet announced on Aug. 11.
Starbucks, meanwhile, is teaming up with Volvo to build 60 chargers at 15 stores from Denver to Seattle before the end of the year, with each location along the 1,350-mile route no farther than 100 miles apart. The inclusion of the charges is intended to make electric vehicle charging “as easy as getting a great cup of coffee,” Starbucks’s chief sustainability officer Michael Kobori said in March.
Silberg has expressed some doubts on locations jumping on the opportunity to install more charging stations because some locations may not have enough parking stations needed to reach the demand from electric vehicle owners. Additionally, he is not sure if installing more stations would provide a boost in customers for these chains, he told the outlet.
Tesla was the first electric vehicle manufacturer to trailblaze the option of installing vehicle charging stations outside restaurants and other locations. The company has over 35,000 Superchargers across the globe, making it “the largest global, fast charging network in the world,” according to Tesla.
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The number of electric vehicles on U.S. roads is projected to reach 26.4 million in 2030, up from the 18.7 million projected in a report from 2018. Almost 12.9 million charging ports will be needed to support the projected 26.4 million vehicles, according to Edison Electric Institute.
