When the Racetrac chain of convenience stores decided to install electric vehicle chargers, project leader Rushi Patel started with a blank Excel sheet and a lot of questions. Did the finances make sense? Where is the best place to install them? What features should they have? The answers to questions like these can go a long way toward establishing an economic case for building out America’s public EV charging infrastructure.
“We found that our guests were using new types of fuel, like electrons, and we wanted to be with them as part of that journey,” said Patel, the diversified energy manager at Racetrac’s parent company, Metroplex Energy. But he was clear that “it’s important to have an offer that does make money.”
Patel slowly started filling his spreadsheet in 2021 and filled cells with EV adoption ratesutility prices, construction costs and a range of other metrics. He also took the company’s executives on a two-hour tour of charging stations in Atlanta, where Racetrac is based. One was hidden behind a mall, the other was deep in the bowels of a mall. It was clear to them that Racetrac could do better.
Two years later, Racetrac installed its first Level 3 fast charger in Oxford, Alabama—complete with the company logo and a canopy to shade people from the sun while pumping electrons. It has since opened seven more in three states. So far he said: “[the business model] hold up pretty well.”
These eight chargers are among the 61,000 covering the countrya figure that has more than doubled since 2022. The increase comes as mounting evidence shows EV charging stations can be a boon to businesses, and not just by selling electricity.
A recent study in the journal Nature Communications looked at chargers in California and found that, pre-pandemic, businesses a average annual boost of $1,500 when at least one of the devices was standing nearby. Another paper surveyed Tesla Supercharger installations nationally and found that they have a 4 percent increase in visitors to a business. The effect was especially pronounced if the chargers were within 500 feet, and if it was the first one in the area. This blessing is due to the fact that it can take 30 minutes or more to be fully charge an EVwhich gives drivers enough time to shop.
“The places that tend to get the biggest bump are the places that correspond to how long it takes you to charge your car,” said Gordon Burtch, an author of the paper and a professor of information systems at the Boston University’s Questrom School of Business said. . “Sit-down restaurants don’t benefit as much as fast food restaurants.”
Photo courtesy Rushi Patel / Racetrac
A variety of companies have seen the benefits of installing chargers. Walmart is building its own network chargers to add to the more than 1,300 chargers already at its stores. Kohl’s and Starbucks are adding more hardware. Metro plans to add “charging oasis parks,” complete with picnic tables, Wi-Fi and playgrounds. Some places are even offers free charging to attract potential customers.
“Owning and operating a charger on your own can be very difficult,” says Jim Burness, the founder of National Car Charging, which operates more than 11,000 charging points across the country. “If you add the increased shopping cart, the economic case becomes pretty easy.”
Patel says Racetrac is indeed seeing a bump in sales as people stop to tune in. The quality of the experience seems to make a big difference, he added, which is why the company has invested in features like canopies.
“If you’re going to top up your regular vehicle under a canopy, there should be no reason why you can’t do the same [with an EV],” he said, noting that a well-lit facility that includes access to clean restrooms also goes a long way in attracting customers.
“If you dial in the offer and make the experience great, not only will they pay a premium, but they’ll come back,” says Karl Doenges, executive director of toll analytics at The Transportation Energy Institute. But both he and Patel noted that there are still challenges to overcome; especially how to coordinate utility costs with customer prices.
Utilities often charge commercial accounts two fees: one for the amount of energy consumed and one fixed amount based on peak demand for the month. Rates may also vary depending on the time of day. This can make it difficult to determine how to price a charger.
Doenges says operators have experimented with pricing for time of use, and increasingly, dynamic pricing based on demand, similar to Uber surcharges. According to Patel, some utilities are also developing models better suited to EV charging patterns, which is why Racetrac chose Alabama for its first charger. But, he said, “the hardest part even today has been the way electricity is priced.”
Chargers can also be very expensive to install, ranging from thousands of dollars A level 2 charger to hundreds of thousands for a much faster Level 3 device that can do the job in as little as 20 minutes. On that front, at least, there are significant federal incentives available to help. The bipartisan Infrastructure Act of 2021 established the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, which currently rolling out across the country with a goal of creating 500,000 new stations by 2030. Racetrac $619,575.87 received installing four chargers at his store in Dublin, Georgia.
While Patel wouldn’t elaborate on Racetrac’s expansion plans, he said more chargers are coming, and he’s confident that if the company builds them, enough customers will come to make it worth the cost. “We did a lot of analysis,” he said. “We went deep.”
