For Decades, Installing E.V. Chargers Didn’t Pay Off for Retailers. Now It Does. | The New York Times

Companies see charging as a potentially profitable business in and of itself, not just as a spur for foot traffic and sales.

Sarajane Leary knows what to do when her electric car is low on power: She goes grocery shopping.

On a recent afternoon, Ms. Leary plugged her Toyota bZ4X into a fast electric vehicle charger in the parking lot of a Hannaford supermarket in Altamont, N.Y., and then headed into the store for paper goods and potato chips.

“I’ll get a 50 percent charge while I’m here,” she said.

The time — and money — Ms. Leary spends in a store while charging her car is exactly the kind of thing retailers, shopping centers and malls bet on when they started installing E.V. chargers decades ago. For years, their experience was mixed, and the actual benefits were unclear. Now, new studies say retailers’ charging efforts may well be paying off…

Read the full story at The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/18/business/ev-chargers-store-parking-lots.html