IssacZachary said:
True. But on the other hand I personally know I wouldn't have ever gone to Beau Jo's Pizza in Idaho Springs had it not been for their EV charging station. The same with the REI in Colorado Springs. I never stop at the convenience stores in Cimarron, Saguache or Sargents as of now. But if they put charging stations in I'd both stop there and buy there. And these aren't the kind of businesses that are full of customers. These are businesses that look like they are the last thing standing in a ghost town.
When I get to Denver and Costco doesn't have a charging station I personally don't care because Wal-Mart does. If Costco had one I'd actually contemplate about maybe shopping there. Now if all EV owners thought like I did then stores would have to realize that as more people convert to EV's the more customers they'll end up losing to the stores that actually have EV charging stations.
When I'm in a need for a charge and a bite in town I pick a restaurant close to the town's only charging station. Now down on the other end of town there are restaurants that I like, but they're too far away.
You do realize the EV and PHEV take rate in the US is minuscule, right? Per http://www.hybridcars.com/july-2017-dashboard/ for July 2017:
Plug-in Hybrid Take-Rate: 0.53%
Battery Electric Take-Rate: 0.55%
If you want to compare absolute numbers of those vs. the entire US auto market, http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2017/08/july-2017-ytd-us-vehicle-sales-rankings.html has numbers.
There were an estimated 7,802 BEVs sold/leased in total in the US that month. In comparison, here are some example # of units sold/leased that month of ICEVs: #1 Ford F-Series truck: 69.4K, #3 Rav4: 41.8K, #5 Civic: 36.7K (top selling passenger car) and so on.
And, then there's the existing installed based of vehicles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_vehicles_in_the_United_States#Total_number_of_vehicles claims there are 254 million registered vehicles in the US. I don't believe (hopefully someone else has the numbers) that total cumulative BEV sales/leases in the US have even hit 500K units.
Think about the cost/benefit analysis that a business/land owner might have. What's the incremental gain (if any) in business he might get from installing an L2 EVSE or DC FC? And, what's the trade-off? (see earlier post) What happens if the station needs repair (stops working, copper thieves cut the cable, handle breaks, etc.)?
(Non-plugin hybrids) which have been selling in the US (albeit in limited quantities until say after 2006 or so) which require no habit change on the part of drivers, have no range anxiety issues and require no new infrastructure at home or in public never seemed to get above the 3.x% take rate or so in the US.