Legacy Fueling Station Impacts

The rapid transition to electric vehicles will have implications for the Gas Station/Convenience Store industry in the United States. Current trends illustrate that the high volatility of crude oil prices, low profitability on petroleum fuels and increasing market for healthy and made-to-order food allow a path for the industry to continue in an EV dominated US. Carbon dioxide emissions from burning petroleum fuels is the largest environmental factor contributing to the push for an EV transition but leaking underground storage tanks for fuel has also created vast unaddressed environmental degradation which must be considered when fuel tax can no longer support remediation as it has until now.

Timely build-out of EV charging infrastructure will require government research, regulation, and funding to supply charging fast enough and expansive enough for the projected EV demand in the next 30 years. There are several charging models such as providing free charging, cost per time or cost per kWh of energy, each of which can be employed in different settings to most effectively provide charging to the public and allow the convenience store industry, among others, to remain competitive. While research continues to develop, the future of the infrastructure transition from fueling to charging is promising.