German gas stations are looking at the trends, and figuring up the cost factor of putting in some electrical charging stations at their local gas stations. Current pricing? By the time you figure the parking spots (paved), the electrical work required, the equipment, and the certifications....it's around 500k Euro per charging station. So putting up six of these....would be near 3-million Euro.
Your payback system? People don't talk much about that. One might take a guess that you'd have to figure four years as a minimum to pay off what you installed, and the rate on top of the electrical charge would be a lot more than what you'd pay for power at your house to charge your car.
This is one of the little things that Germans complain about in the electrical charging business....that a simple charge on a six-hour trip is way more than what they thought it ought to cost.
Behind all of this, there is also this speculation about hydrogen cars gaining ground, and the electrical investment being a total waste of money.
Will the gas station folks (Esso, Shell, etc) take the step? Or will they view this as a fairly risky venture? Lets be honest here.....the majority of people who own houses and an electrical car....will go and put a charger system (maybe even solar panels) into their house. They won't use commercial charging stations unless it's a long road trip and beyond their local area.
I would go and speculate that very few gas stations venture into this, and it'll be mostly along the autobahn system. There is simply going to be too much risk on this failing to pay the cost back.
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