Starbucks Starts Installing EV Chargers at Locatio
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American multinational firm Starbucks has officially entered the electric-vehicle business with the launch of dozens of new EV charging stations at 15 locations between Denver and Seattle. The installation is part of a partnership between Starbucks and Swedish carmaker Volvo that will see the two companies install 50 Volvo charging stations at Starbucks locations in Utah, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
Any electric vehicle, regardless of brand, will be able to charge at the Volvo charging stations as long as they have CHadeMO or CCSI connectors. Both companies announced the charging station project in 2022 as part of efforts to mitigate the lack of proper public electric-vehicle charging infrastructure in North America. Compared to the nation’s current fleet of 2.3 million electric cars, the Unites States has only 32,000 DC fast chargers.
Most of America’s charging stations are concentrated in urban regions and, with the exception of Tesla’s supercharger network, often run into reliability issues. As a result, electric-vehicle drivers in the country are significantly underserved, a fact that has prevented many drivers from switching to electric vehicles.
According to a Starbucks spokesperson, the two companies chose the Seattle-Denver corridor partly because it connects cities that are currently underserved in terms of public EV-charging infrastructure. Like Starbucks, other retail and food chains have noticed the rising demand for EV charging infrastructure and are planning on incorporating charging stations into their locations as well. This includes companies such as Subway, 7-Eleven and Whole Foods.
Coupled with billions of dollars in investment from the Biden administration to fund the development of a nationwide network of charging stations, these efforts by food and retail chains could help America build up its EV charging infrastructure.
The new Volvo-Starbucks charging stations will be accessible to most American EV drivers as the majority of non-Tesla EVs in the country use Combined Charging System (CCS1) connectors. While the European Automobile Association developed the Combined Charging System, CHAdeMO connectors emerged in Japan and have been adopted by Asian car manufacturers such as Nissan, which used the charging connector on older EV models.
On the other hand, Tesla developed its charging connector, the North American Charging Standard (NACS) before the creation of CCS. The standard was only accessible to Tesla drivers until last year when Tesla made the standard and its supercharger network accessible to other companies. Several automakers including Hyundai, Mercedes, Honda, Volvo, Ford and General Motors have now announced that their future models will feature NACS connectors.
As the charging infrastructure improves, there is likely to be an uptick in the sales of various EV models from automakers such as Mullen Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN) and other startups as the concerns about EV charger availability are addressed by state actors and private companies.
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