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Germany will require all petrol stations to provide electric car charging
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany said it will oblige all petrol stations to offer electric car charging to help remove refuelling concerns and boost consumer demand for the vehicles as part of its 130 billion euro ($146 billion) economic recovery plan.
The move could provide a significant boost to electric vehicle demand along with the broader stimulus plan which included taxes to penalise ownership of large polluting combustion-engined sports utility vehicles and a 6,000 euro subsidy towards the cost of an electric vehicle.
Germany's announcement follows a French plan to boost electric car sales announced last week by President Macron.
"It's a very clear commitment to battery-powered vehicles and establishes electric mobility as a technology of the future," energy storage specialist The Mobility House, whose investors include Daimler (DAIGn.DE) and the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, said.
"Internationally this puts Germany in the leading group of battery electric vehicle support."
As part of the government stimulus, 2.5 billion euros will be spent on battery cell production and charging infrastructure, a field where oil majors, utilities and carmakers, including Shell (RDSa.L), Engie (ENGIE.PA) and Tesla (TSLA.O), are vying for dominance.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Nuke on Sunday June 07 2020, @10:12AM (5 children)
From your link :
Romance? A petrol station FFS!?? I hate the places, whether to arrive at or drive past. I can't say I've ever seen a stylish design, except when I was a kid there was one nearby in what I now realise was an Art Deco style, but that was demolished and replaced by the now standard design. I guess because it was not ugly enough.
Now they are all eyesores, designed to shout down the road as far as possible to approaching drivers that they are there. They just consists of rows of pumps, a functional office/shop building, and a canopy about three time higher than it needs to be, and a massive sign on the roadside, all in loud Lego colours. Normal UK planning regulations to try to avoid ugliness seem to be suspended for them.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Sunday June 07 2020, @10:38AM (1 child)
the romance probably stopped when "full driveway service" stopped: the attendant would fill your car, and while the pump was running, they would also clean your windows, check tyre pressures and check engine fluids.
I know of two petrol stations where they still offer to fill your car for you, but they are small, and their prices are slightly higher than the large places (which all seem to be small supermarkets, cafes and convenience stores with petrol on the side)
Don't forget the romance of leaded fuel, or refilling overheated cooling systems on long drives, or only being able to pay for fuel with cash...
For a teenager, the romance of the petrol station was far more to do with the freedom - and having enough money to put fuel in the car, and take your friends out, and kow that you *could* take a girl home.. nothing to do with the actual petrol station.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 07 2020, @01:03PM
When I want romance while I'm driving, I get my wife to put her head down and do the business. Proper romantic.
(Score: 4, Informative) by RS3 on Sunday June 07 2020, @04:26PM (2 children)
LOUD YOU SAY? Yeah, same here in US. In fact, annoyingly at best, many stations have TV screens on the pumps with loud obnoxious high-energy news, commercials, etc., and NO WAY to adjust volume or mute it. I wear earplugs frequently (for just such reasons) and it's still annoying as can be. Maybe they're hoping we'll go inside the store and buy overpriced things while petrol is flowing.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 07 2020, @05:40PM (1 child)
Pretty much, it's amazing all the places that advertisers are allowed to advertise these days. The best thing you can do is make a note of the companies that are doing the advertising and not buy anything from them. Eventually, they should get the message.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Sunday June 07 2020, @08:30PM
I like your thinking, however their mindset is such that they'll just do more, louder, and more invasive advertising. They know it'll work somehow eventually, even if through the "there no such thing as bad publicity" effect.