How do you make a gas station business selling gas for $4/gallon when almost everybody gets it at home for $1.20?
The planned EV transition needs charging, but a great deal of planning and spending is being done by people who don’t understand how different their economics is from the gasoline industry—mostly people who don’t own an EV, but even a few who do. While the mistake is often best called “gasoline thinking”—seeing the world in terms of filling the gas tank—it turns out that some gasoline analogies can help explain just how strange the economics are, and why it’s so hard to make charging a business.
One challenge of the public charging business is that some companies are effectively hoping to open gas stations that charge $4/gallon in a world where 80% of the drivers have a private station in their homes where it costs $1.20/”gallon.” You’re only going to get those who have no other choice, and they’re going to resent it.
Recent Comments