The place where you top up your car's tank is being reinvented to stay relevant in a big, big way.The humble gas station has evolved massively over the past 140 years or so, from the earliest days when you had to pull around behind a pharmacy to get a fill-up to the sprawling temples of transportation that festoon our highways today. Modern filling stations, or travel centers as they're increasingly known, are much more than places to fuel your car and yourself.
Upward of 120 gas pumps make the most striking impression upon pulling into one of these places, but increasingly, those pumps are augmented with filling points of another type. Electric chargers are showing up at Buc-ee's in a big way. Tesla made a tentative agreement with the brand in 2021 to install Superchargers in 26 of its travel centers in seven states.
That's changing. Amaiya Khardenavis, analyst of EV charging infrastructure at the energy research firm Wood Mackenzie, likens the early days of charging infrastructure expansion to a "land grab" where every charger company was throwing down plugs wherever they could, with little thought about amenities or anything else.
For EA, it's something of a halo moment. "We really wanted to make it this kind of inspirational project that could highlight the benefits of driving an EV and bring the community of EV drivers together in one large format location," Anthony Lambkin said. He's VP of operations at Electrify America. The company has continued to experiment with destination charging. While plenty of chargers are close to movie theaters and the like, one of Tesla’s newest will feature not one but two theaters in the building, which is appropriately being built in Hollywood. It's scheduled to open sometime this year.