Charge Your EV at Walgreens

[Jay64]

Don't know if this was posted yet (I did a search and didn't find anything on here) but thought this was kinda cool and a definate step in the right direction.

http://www.bizjournals.com/prnewswire/press_releases/2011/07/29/FL43767

 

[wheelbender6]

Kudos to Walgreen's for stepping up.

 

[Jay64]

Sounds like it is still a little ways off, but it is definately good to see some companies at least putting the thought out there. I saw a commercial for an upcoming news broadcast (which I didn't get to see) that was mentioning that Florida is trying to put a lot more charging stations up around the state. Hopefully we will at least get some.

 

[REdiculous]

Sounds good but it's probably not going to be free. Even if it's free-to-use, that just means everyone pays slightly higher prices on the goods in the store. It's really nice that they're going with the high-speed chargers since you can feasibly get a full charge in the time it takes to shop.

I wonder how many slots they're shooting for. Even if it's only a dozen per store, it'd be a good start. Hopefully they don't get vandalized.

 

[Jay64]

Well, at least in this area, Walgreens is in direct competition with CVS. If they raise their prices too much, then they will loose too much business from the majority of their shoppers to CVS. It is definately cool that they are adding these chargers, and hopefully this will make it more likely that more people will get into EVs. But this will still be a small portion of their business compared to their everyday non EV shoppers. Maybe they are getting some type of incentive or something. Maybe they are banking on the future business. I don't shop at either store much, but I know if they put in chargers, that will increase my willingness to choose them over CVS when I do need to choose one of those types of stores.

 

[REdiculous]

If they raise their prices too much, then they will loose too much business from the majority of their shoppers to CVS.

If the average shopper-with-an-EV takes a 12kwh charge ("half a tank" on the Leaf) that's about $1.50 in electricity. If they average somewhere around 50 car-charges per day that'd cost the store around $2000/mo. It's gonna cost them to install the chargers too....if you figure $1000 per charger, if they put in 10 that's $10,000 (per store) they gotta make back somehow.

Someone has to pay for it all.

They could run it like a gas station so you pay for what you take, and they could charge 1¢/kwh over what the electricity costs them. That would bring in about $180/mo and the chargers would be paid for in about 4.5 years...still assuming 50 cars/day pulling in 12kwh each on average.

Or they could charge more on (key) items. This would spread the cost out to all the shoppers, not just the EV owners, so it's probably not a good idea.

In theory the charging stations are bringing in customers that wouldn't be there otherwise so the idea is they're doing more business - even though the shopper-with-an-EV costs the store $1.50 (say), if that shopper spends more than about $10 the store should break even at least.

 

[amberwolf]

Maybe having the EVs out there charging will bring in even more customers, as they come in to find out what's going on.

Having my CrazyBike2 parked outside the store I work in actually brings in people just because they stopped to look at it, even though they have no other reason to come in (either no pets or they don't buy stuff for theirs at pet stores, only grocery stores).

We've gotten a number of new customers just because my bike is out there. (some of them also come in to find the maker to talk, but I usually don't ahve time right then...I need to make up some cards for ES with my thread links on them!)

 

[Harold in CR]

Why would "FREE" charging even get mentioned ?? You HAVE to charge somewhere, and, unless you BUY Solar panels, you have to pay somehow, somewhere.

I'm all for putting in charge stations, and have a meter that can be read right in the store, same as gasoline and diesel pumps. Even if you only get half a charge, pay at the counter and go about your business. You DO NOT have that convenience at the liquid pumps, and, how much other crap is bought at the "Kiosk" stations, like Coca Cola and coffin nails ???

I think someone is thinking in the right direction. 8) 8)

 

[darkshirikens]

That's a good first step that Walgreens is doing maybe the pricing will be just a flat rate or so like a $1 an hour or less maybe they will do a seasonal pricing also when i worked at walmart they didn't even want my bike on their property because they didn't want to be responsible if something happens to it which was b.s and they were so called supporting the ride to work initiative but some walmarts dont even have bike racks its funny have smaller companies like walgreens take syep for a greener environment but the bigger companies only does it when its raised in a question or just to make their image to the world look better thumbs up o Walgreens !!!