The real estate industry is going to subsume the gas station industry. This is the future. For consumers, convenience wins. Why go out of your way to an EV charging station if you can fuel up at the grocery store, at the gym, or while you're at a restaurant? Thinking we need a bunch of dedicated EV charging stations is cognitive bias based on how we conceive of gas stations today. The "gas station" of the future is electrons that meet you where you're at. For businesses, profits win. Businesses will do what makes them money. EV charging did not make financial sense for a long time. That is changing, driven by tenant demand and lowering installation costs. Retailers like Walmart and Costco will lead the way, but other asset classes like multifamily won't be far behind. This is a win-win-win, and the biggest winner is the real estate industry. A tremendous amount of real estate today is undervalued, based on its energy generation potential. As the cost of solar and storage goes down, and more real estate owners unlock their true energy generation potential, energy will be a huge revenue generator for real estate owners. #proptech
Brad Hargreaves
1mo
The question mark here is what role autonomous vehicles play. AVs are far less tied to charging at the places their occupants want to go; they can drive themselves to an off-site charging station. Long-term it probably doesn't make sense for charging and parking infrastructure to eat valuable square footage in apartment and retail complexes.
Andrew Weakland
1mo
And the retailers can make sure that the chargers are a generation behind so that customers have to spend a bit more time in the store and make a few add-on purchases! ;)
Eric S.
1mo
Yoshi Mobility is a good example of how Gas grew legs and met consumers where the demand was. EV chargers are quickly becoming the beacon of electrons that attracts all walks of life.
Dan Winston
1mo
This is a fantastic development. I'm excited that EV chargers are much smaller, and safer, than gas pumps. They can be easily incorporated into retail, housing, office as part of a mixed-use future. Thinking of my former colleagues Dan Wilson Shannon Dulaney who've launched a number of charging hubs, in very different context.
Stefan Knight
1mo
Especially if the building generates surplus energy from solar, it could then sell it.
Kevin Aschman
1mo
There seems to be micro-construction zones in nearly every bank parking lot. Tons of activity...
Stefan Knight
1mo
Here in the UK, the big chain supermarkets like Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury are well positioned already.
Director of Asset Financing @ Ezra Climate
1moTotally makes sense that large real estate portfolios (e.g., national retail chains) are starting to finance these themselves. Over the last few years, I've seen a number of EV charging project finance deals fall through because no one wants to take on the utilisation risk (and most emerging EVCI developers can't take this risk on themselves). Large retailers with the balance sheet to finance these projects - and the upside to be found by attracting customers - is totally the logical evolution of financing these things.