To survive, the service station will have to change.
In 2019, management consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG) studied the global fuel retail industry and published a report that sent shockwaves through the industry: when most cars were EVs, it said, most service stations would be unable to turn a profit.
Under the most extreme scenario, 60 to 80 per cent of service stations could be unprofitable by 2035, unless they change their business models.
Must admit I hadn’t thought of this, even though one of the things that draws me to buying an electric car is the idea of running it for ‘free’ from my rooftop solar panels.
The reports reckons that in Oz 80% of charging would be done at home, and a lot of the rest at public or semi public charging stations; think, Woolies or Bunnings, with their roofs full of panels. They could even ‘give away’ the power as a loss leader.
Chances are that some of the bigger road houses will turn into charging and service hubs, as the story says, but the inner city and suburban servo’s will probably end up as apartment blocks.
I've thought about this a lot, and we have seen this before. One hundred years ago we transitioned to the ICE at the expense of our old friend, the horse, along with the millions of very specialized jobs and the enormous body of knowledge that accompanied the care and maintenance of the half-ton beasts. I grew up with horses and I will cheerfully admit that I don't know 1/100th of what my grandpa knew about them. Now, I will say that I regret the loss of our ancient heritage, our symbiotic relationship with the horse, in a way that I'll never miss knowing how to re-ring and service an ICE engine.
and as someone who works in a regulatory agency that has had to deal with the consequences of the crappy maintenance of some of these sites underground storage tanks I can only say thank F it can't happen soon enough.
Most local servos are more corner-store than petrol specialist. Some are a chain of fancy, David-Jones branded take-away food shops now, aren't they?
I've never been able to figure out why we even still have petrol stations with all the trimmings. Most of Europe has replaced them with small, unmanned versions. Bowsers with their own credit card machine. (Three out of four of which will be sitting there with a charge rung up, waiting to be paid...)
What's going to be really interesting is the question of how much bother it will be to find some petrol, at any price, for the cars that are still on the road by then. The working life of a car is not short.
Per newsagents, post offices are in much the same situation. No-one does letters much any more. Parcels have slightly different dynamics, and they're really the only thing that needs delivering. So Post offices still in business trade on newsagent-style knick-knacks and banking services. With the latter gradually completing the move to on-line that'll be another business model go fluie. Some parts of Europe have a little "post-office" corner franchise in general stores...
Newsagents used to be pretty much my favourite shop, outside of bookstores (okay and maybe proper old school surf shops, and video game stockists…) but it’s pretty tragic now, eve when you can find one.
I have one decent one left not too many burbs away, but what the Internet hadn’t already destroyed, Covid seems to have achieved through bollocksing international shipping etc. Empty shelves galore…
I've thought about this a lot, and we have seen this before. One hundred years ago we transitioned to the ICE at the expense of our old friend, the horse, along with the millions of very specialized jobs and the enormous body of knowledge that accompanied the care and maintenance of the half-ton beasts. I grew up with horses and I will cheerfully admit that I don't know 1/100th of what my grandpa knew about them. Now, I will say that I regret the loss of our ancient heritage, our symbiotic relationship with the horse, in a way that I'll never miss knowing how to re-ring and service an ICE engine.
and as someone who works in a regulatory agency that has had to deal with the consequences of the crappy maintenance of some of these sites underground storage tanks I can only say thank F it can't happen soon enough.
Mechanics too. There's a lot fewer moving parts in an EV. Perhaps reduced to changing a few tyres. Not as dire as a servo though.
Most local servos are more corner-store than petrol specialist. Some are a chain of fancy, David-Jones branded take-away food shops now, aren't they?
I've never been able to figure out why we even still have petrol stations with all the trimmings. Most of Europe has replaced them with small, unmanned versions. Bowsers with their own credit card machine. (Three out of four of which will be sitting there with a charge rung up, waiting to be paid...)
What's going to be really interesting is the question of how much bother it will be to find some petrol, at any price, for the cars that are still on the road by then. The working life of a car is not short.
Per newsagents, post offices are in much the same situation. No-one does letters much any more. Parcels have slightly different dynamics, and they're really the only thing that needs delivering. So Post offices still in business trade on newsagent-style knick-knacks and banking services. With the latter gradually completing the move to on-line that'll be another business model go fluie. Some parts of Europe have a little "post-office" corner franchise in general stores...
They should have a chat with newsagents...
IKR. I used to love going to the newsagent. It's a sad trip now, though
To quote Al from Happy Days, yehhp, yep yep yep…
Newsagents used to be pretty much my favourite shop, outside of bookstores (okay and maybe proper old school surf shops, and video game stockists…) but it’s pretty tragic now, eve when you can find one.
I have one decent one left not too many burbs away, but what the Internet hadn’t already destroyed, Covid seems to have achieved through bollocksing international shipping etc. Empty shelves galore…
Yeah, it's incredibly sad. The only good one I know of is, or was, in Bungalow, and I think they survived on the massive tourist traffic.