Tesla looking to add convenience stores to some Supercharger stations

[William Gayde]

With a broader adoption of electric cars, there are numerous other facets of the transportation industry that need to be upgraded as well. Take the convenience store, for example. They are almost always located at gas stations, but Tesla and other electric car owners don't go to gas stations though.

Looking to capitalize on this emerging market, Tesla CTO J.B. Straubel has highlighted the company's plan to add convenience stores to some of their existing and future Supercharger stations.

Recharging your electric car's batteries takes considerably longer than filling up a tank of gas. Adding a small store with restrooms that also sells cold drinks and snacks is a great way to keep customers coming back. This way, Tesla customers can fill their stomachs while they fill up their cars. It's essentially making a gas station minus the actual gasoline.

Struabel explained that "People are coming and spending 20 to 30 minutes at these stops" and that "they want to eat, they want to have a cup of coffee, and they want to use the bathroom."

The company is right in the middle of a critical roll out for the Model 3; Tesla's first mass-market car. With capital resources stretched tight, now might not be the best time to add a brand new food business line. To address these concerns, Straubel made it clear that Tesla wasn't interested in entering the full service food market. Rather, they will work with restaurants and other vendors to start scaling up the project.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/71104-tesla-looking-add-convenience-stores-supercharger-stations.html

 

[captaincranky]

So Tesla is going to take on 7-11?

 

[cliffordcooley]

So Tesla is going to take on 7-11?

I imagine 7-11 (as well as others) rejected Tesla's proposal to install supercharging stations. 7-11 probably wants to keep their status quo. But then again you are probably thinking Musk is arrogant and never made a proposal. And you could be absolutely correct.

 

[bmw95]

So Tesla is going to take on 7-11?

I imagine 7-11 (as well as others) rejected Tesla's proposal to install supercharging stations. 7-11 probably wants to keep their status quo. But then again you are probably thinking Musk is arrogant and never made a proposal. And you could be absolutely correct.

I don't think pairing up with 7-11 would be a good idea for Tesla from a branding standpoint tbh.

 

[captaincranky]

@cliffordcooley The issue with electrics is time to charge. Gas stations pay rent on gallons pumped. Now, when you start having 'fill ups' take more than a half hour, you would have to compensate by increasing lot capacity immensely.

Just think about being at a gas station when somebody starts screwing around emptying their ashtrays, and throwing fast food containers and juice boxes away. A cacophony of horns blowing is the usual result.

So now Musk is gonna need way bigger lots, for a much lower percentage of vehicles on the road, not to mention all the original Teslas get free fill ups. Start thinking in terms of 15 dollar a pack smokes, and $2.00+, 12 ounce cans of Pepsi.. Musk is a big enough hypocrite to sell people such poisons, while blowing his horn about "saving the planet"!

But then, people love to piss their money away on Apple products, so who knows.

 

[captaincranky]

I don't think pairing up with 7-11 would be a good idea for Tesla from a branding standpoint tbh.

Guy, "taking on", does have an entirely different connotation from, "pairing up with".

Although, I can picture Musk, cla**hole that he is, walking up to the CEO of 7-11, and telling him something on the order of, "I'm going to do you a huge favor by putting my Charging stations at all your stores, as long as you redo all your stores in my colors, and change the name of your chain to "Tesla"....."

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I don't think pairing up with 7-11 would be a good idea for Tesla from a branding standpoint tbh.

Guy, "taking on", does have an entirely different connotation from, "pairing up with".

Although, I can picture Muck, cla**hole that he is, walking up to the CEO of 7-11, and telling him something on the order of, "I'm going to do you a huge favor by putting my Charging stations at all your stores, as long as you redo all your stores in my colors, and change the name of your chain to "Tesla"....."

If 7/11 ain't interested then maybe the likes of Georgio Armani & Harrod's might be. Anyway this is a surprise to me. I've would've thought a convenience store of some sort would be standard fare at every recharge station. You don't see a petrol (gas) stations anywhere in the world without some kind of a convenience store attached so why should a recharge station be any different?

 

[namesrejected]

So Tesla is going to take on 7-11?

I imagine 7-11 (as well as others) rejected Tesla's proposal to install supercharging stations. 7-11 probably wants to keep their status quo. But then again you are probably thinking Musk is arrogant and never made a proposal. And you could be absolutely correct.

Now why on Gods green Earth would you think Captaincranky would think Musk is arrogant?

 

[Uncle Al]

How about Dunkin Doughnuts? I can spend a lot more than 20-30 minutes there, ESPECIALLY if they have clean restrooms!

 

[Reehahs]

A convenience store makes sense at electric car charging points but not at normal petrol stations especially if they are on a busy through fare. Last thing I want is to be waiting to fill up while someone is taking their sweet time doing their weekly shopping blocking the pump at it.

 

[captaincranky]

If 7/11 ain't interested then maybe the likes of Georgio Armani & Harrod's might be. Anyway this is a surprise to me. I've would've thought a convenience store of some sort would be standard fare at every recharge station. You don't see a petrol (gas) stations anywhere in the world without some kind of a convenience store attached so why should a recharge station be any different?

When the recharging stations of 2040 are built, they will likely have convenience stores attached. While Musk is indeed a "visionary", (his, and the words of others, not mine), there simply are too many competing convenience store chains, and not enough electric cars on the road now, to warrant a nationwide major investment.

Now, you have to understand, people love to throw money at Musk, and his IPOs, indeed make money. After all, Tesla itself has had few to none profitable quarters, yet the stock price continually rises.

But for now, one store in downtown LA or Hollywierd, would likely be what the actual market would bear.

Musk swears he has a half million deposits on his electric cheapies, cars which he may, or may not, be able to deliver as promised.

Musk swears he's going to put in a slew of charging stations in the city by the end of the year. Which is another promise he may, or may not, be able to keep.

I think fools throwing tons of good money after bad, in his direction, only fosters his megalomania and attention deficit disorder.

And don't get me started about him wanting to put underground tunnels in the center of major cities so he can beat traffic. There's so much wrong there such his, "what major city in its right mind would issue building permits, for Musk to tunnel next to the foundations of huge skyscrapers"?

After all, subway systems and roads are governmental projects. In the case of underground urban transit, those projects were started long before cities were at "full occupancy" with respect to full utilization of available land.

Besides, he's already at the point where many of the most talented people are balking at the prospect of working for him. Will that situation deteriorate even further? Stay tuned.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

"what major city in its right mind would issue building permits, for Musk to tunnel next to the foundations of huge skyscrapers"?

San Francisco??? Perhaps while he's down there boring away, he could bolt the tectonic plates together to ease the subduction and help subdue the earthquakes.

 

[captaincranky]

San Francisco??? Perhaps while he's down there boring away, he could bolt the tectonic plates together to ease the subduction and help subdue the earthquakes.

All I need to know from you is, if you think Musk should tackle the tectonic plate issue, before or after, he builds his colony on Mars. (Using water from him having Mars' polar caps nuked).

But you're correct, San Francisco is well trendy enough to support a Tesla convenience store.

Unlike other vulgar pedestrian convenience stores, one in San Francisco should have row upon row of designer condom dispensers (*), Latte machines, and a separate KY concession..

I saw Brian Boitano interviewed in a major ice skating tournament, nearing the end of his competitive career. He was asked what he wanted to do after he retired. He replied without hesitation, "I want to open a restaurant in San Francisco and do things with noodles. There's lots of wonderful things being done with noodles these days".

(*) Possibly even a reusable "Tesla" branded, "modern safe intercourse device", with the picture of a Space-X reusable booster on the package.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

All I need to know from you is, if you think Musk should tackle the tectonic plate issue, before or after, he builds his colony on Mars. (Using water from him having Mars' polar caps nuked).

But you're correct, San Francisco is well trendy enough to support a Tesla convenience store.

Unlike other vulgar pedestrian convenience stores, one in San Francisco should have row upon row of designer condom dispensers, Latte machines, and a separate KY concession..

I saw Brian Boitano interviewed in a major ice skating tournament, nearing the end of his competitive career. He was asked what he wanted to do after he retired. He replied without hesitation, "I want to open a restaurant in San Francisco and do things with noodles. There's lots of wonderful things being done with noodles these days".

Musk is supposed to a walking marvel. Can't he multi task and tackle the Mars colony & tectonic plate issues at the same time?

 

[captaincranky]

Well, of course he could, but then he couldn't justify separate press conferences for each "crowning achievement". Although, maybe journalists who graduated with "gentlemen's Cs", would continue to fawn over him on a daily basis.

None of that withstanding, sometimes people aren't aware of their subconscious motivations for the things they aspire to in the realm of reality.

I would ask you to compare Musk's fascination with rockets, to Kim Jong Un's fascination with rockets. I think it's borne out by feelings of inadequacy, how about you?

I mean neither one of them has a monument anything like George's, the "father of our country" does.

Not even a small monument

Oh poop, the obelisk doesn't get any bigger, even when I keep clicking and clicking on it..

 

[captaincranky]

Musk is supposed to a walking marvel. Can't he multi task and tackle the Mars colony & tectonic plate issues at the same time?

Holy sh!t, they've discovered tectonic plates on Mars?

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Holy sh!t, they've discovered tectonic plates on Mars?

Not that I'm aware of but I'm they're there as well.

 

[Polycount]

Sounds like an interesting idea, but I'll wait to see how it's implemented before I get too excited. I echo some other commenter's concerns regarding lot size and such - since Teslas aren't mass-adopted just yet, though, I'm not sure that it's going to be much of a problem at the moment. Even with 30 minute charging time, you aren't exactly seeing a stream of Teslas driving down the highway one after the other, or even one every hour.

As Teslas become more popular, though, we're going to run into some issues for sure. I really don't know what a potential solution could be. Hopefully the folks over at Tesla have a few solid ideas in the works.