Who is paying for the construction, upkeep and electricity?
How long does it take to charge one vs how long does it take to fill up with fuel?
I watched in early 2018 a German documentary piece. Pro-battery car report, but they’d gone to find these ‘stations’. So on the map was a station just off a German autobahn....right next to a McDonalds. Small lot, two chargers stands, for a total of four charging possibilities.
So the journalist didn’t see anyone around....he walks over to Micky D’s. Oh yeah, says the Micky D’s manager....he watched them build these up. District government ‘gave’ them the property, and some grant was used (like 50-percent federal money and 50-percent private) to erect this, and pave the spot.
So the journalist asked about folks stopping. Since built (nine months prior)...the restaurant manager had NEVER seen anyone stop to charge up. He had figured that this would be great for business because you’d be there for four hours getting a charge, and this McDonalds was the only spot to eat/drink. But no...no one.
So this journalist in his battery car was the first person to charge up. So he noted the cost and the fee inserted into this. At home, this might have run around 1 to 2 Euro (figure $2.5 max). But this commercial charge had a fee attached, so this was coming up to around 7 or 8 Euro (around $9).
Maybe in five to eight years, the station would be paying someone off well...but here for the first couple of years, there’s zero payback going on.