The expansion of nationwide EV charging station network is in the center of attention of the government agencies, environmental groups, and EV manufacturers. Recently, these parties acquired a new ally – retail industry. The reason for this alliance is practical and, when considered, obvious.

When EV drivers park their vehicles at public charging stations, they’re going to have to find a way to pass the time. Suppliers of chargers note that those consumers are likely to go shopping while their EVs are charging. Thus, having an alliance between a retailer – grocery store, supermarket, convenience store or a restaurant – is, as we mentioned earlier, an obvious and practical step. ChargePoint Chief Marketing Officer Colleen Jansen wrote in a blog post that EV charging attracts drivers to retail stores, increases customer spend by keeping them around longer, puts stores on the maps of EV charging apps, creates connections with drivers who interact with the stations online or in an app and allow retailers to deliver special deals to drivers.
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“Because EV drivers tend to have higher incomes on average and are often loyal to places where they can charge, they can become a brand’s most valuable customers,” Jansen wrote.
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When Volvo Car USA announced a pilot program that will install 60 chargers at 15 Starbucks locations, a company executive suggested that EV owners will be able to relax with a cup of coffee while their vehicle is charging. “Volvo Cars wants to give people the freedom to move and lower their impact on the environment,” Anders Gustafsson, senior vice president of the Americas and president and CEO at Volvo Car USA, said in a statement. “Working with Starbucks we can do that by giving them enjoyable places to relax while their cars recharge.”

Another EV charger provider, Volta, established partnership with drugstore chain Walgreens. Walgreens is adding another 1,000 charging stalls at 500 locations over the next 12 to 18 months. Volta Senior Vice President of Network Operations Drew Bennett said during the call that a shopper typically spends 15 to 20 minutes at a Walgreens, long enough for the EV to get a meaningful charge at the station.

On the different end of consumption chain, rental company Hertz has partnered with BP to develop an electric vehicle charging network for the car rental firm’s customers across North America, powered by BP Pulse, energy company’s global electrification and charging solution brand. BP Pulse will also manage the charging infrastructure and will offer Hertz customizable software, allowing the company to ensure its EVs are charged quickly between rentals.
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Building a successful partnership can be achieved through an existing relationship between the parties. But also, it can be based on objective analysis of retail network opportunities in the region of interest. This analysis comes from AI processing of geospatial data, traffic, road network and demographic information. Ticon delivers map-based visualization of the analytic results for optimal choice of the retail partner.

After finding a suitable partner, the next big challenge is to develop an expansion plan for the network of locations that suit the interests of both parties. This plan should describe the prioritization of locations on the retailer’s network of stores, indicating the order in which they shall be equipped with EV charging stations. Ticon has a suite of data analytics products that aggregate and process myriad of multisource data to support this challenging task and to optimize the allocation of resources in a way that maximizes your ROI on EV charging station deployment.