Royal Farms Rolls Out DC Fast Chargers At Its Gas Stations To Drive Retail Sales (CleanTechnica Exclusive)
Royal Farms — an operator of 180 gas service stations in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Virginia — has partnered with ChargePoint and local utilities to install DC fast chargers at 22 of its locations as part of a massive pilot project.
Businesses have yet to find a balance when it comes to pricing schemes at public EV charging stations. It has been a challenge to keep the prices down to reasonable levels for the consumer, but still pay for the station installation in a reasonable amount of time. With new EV charging technology rolling out seemingly every other day, it is a constant race to implement relevant technology for drivers while not paying out the nose for bleeding-edge technology that may or may not be useful for drivers looking just 5 years out.
In an ironic twist, gas service stations are especially well suited for the challenge, as most are built with fuel being a loss leader that only serves to lure customers into the station (where they will inevitably purchase coffee, snacks, and more). These stations have been taken to the next level at many truck stops, which are designed from the ground up to provide every service you could imagine for long-haul truckers who are looking for fuel, a shower, a meal, and a place to park for the night.
Sitting between those two business models are EV charging stations, which are not places most people would park overnight (although, I do have to admit to sleeping for an hour or two at a few of the Supercharging stations on my Tesla Model S road trip), but still manage to capture the attention of drivers for the duration of charging. Royal Farms is well aware of this opportunity and has installed chargers at 22 of its locations out on the northeastern seaboard of the US.
I spoke with Royal Farms’ Fuel and Environmental Leader Tom Ruszin and Marketing Specialist/Project Manager Shelby Kemp about the partnership to understand the motivation for installing the chargers and what it could look like moving forward.
Royal Farms’ name isn’t just a marketing slogan to make it sound nicer than the average service station. Rather, it started out as a dairy farm back in 1918 and grew from there as it added its award-winning chicken and other restaurant-style food items. As with many fast-casual convenience stores on the east coast of the US, its stores are stacked deep with convenience items, fun frozen drinks, and snacks galore.
“Real Fresh, Real Fast, Real Green”
Building on its roots of stewardship of the land, Royal Farms has tried to live its company slogan — “real fresh, real fast, real green.” That is evident in its track record of vetting a variety of environmental and sustainability initiatives over the years. The company started by researching and deploying green building practices for its locations, then took the logical next step (as a gas station) to explore alternative fuels.
These were followed by migrating all station lighting to LEDs, and, obviously, the installation of EV chargers. Royal Farms currently has 22 locations with chargers in the field, with most offering Level 3 DC fast chargers through ChargePoint, one location offering Level 2 chargers, and another single location with a full blown Tesla Supercharger (in Graysonville, Maryland). That one opened 2 weeks ago. Though, it still shows as inactive on Tesla’s page.
Charged up on ChargePoint
After reviewing several options, Royal Farms selected ChargePoint as the primary vendor for its DC fast charging stations. Tom shared that the experience since installing the stations has been excellent. He highlighted that they are very accommodating and provided the systems at a very low cost to Royal Farms. It is important to note that many of the stations were installed in partnership with the local utility, so that has to be taken into context, as DC fast charging stations are not cheap, but with incentives, do represent lucrative incremental offerings in cases like Royal Farms.
ChargePoint’s software and the control it allowed Royal Farms to have over its network of chargers stood out over peers. Tom specifically mentioned the “great reporting at our fingertips” as a differentiator. As a data geek, I also feel comforted by the ability to see the money and metrics moving around at a granular level to truly understand what a charging station is or is not doing for each location. That data is all the more important in the first set of chargers, as it can help station owners to understand whether or not they are truly driving the incremental sales the installations were banking on.
Finally, owning the equipment was also an important factor for Royal Farms, and that is typically how ChargePoint operates, so was a great fit. The “buy once and replace over time” model for charging stations is very much in line with the purchasing/ownership models for petrol and diesel equipment, so the preference makes sense.
EV Charging at a Gas Station?
The obvious question that popped to mind when I heard that the operator of a large chain of gas stations was installing charging stations was, “Why?#8221; Royal Farms Environmental Leader Tom Ruszin shared that the company sees the fast chargers as a great way to bring in customers that are much more likely to come into its convenience stores, which will drive incremental retail sales and higher profits. He shared that they do not view EV charging as a trend that will buck gasoline sales anytime in the near future, but that they wanted to get in early to establish their position in the EV charging ecosystem.