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Hear me out: instead of faster chargers, we should lobby for SLOWER gas pumps
electrek.co ^ | 10/11/2025 | Jo Borras

Posted on 10/14/2025 10:04:42 AM PDT by Signalman

Utilities, state governments, and private developers are racing to roll out faster, more powerful EV chargers. At the same time, automakers and tech giants across the globe are pouring billions into R&D to develop batteries that can take ever-higher levels of power. But what if there’s a better, easier, cheaper, and more effective way to cut emissions?

What if, instead of faster chargers, we pushed for SLOWER gas pumps?

I want to start this conversation by pointing out that there’s a precedent for this idea. Back in 1993, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule that limited the rate that gas service stations could pump fuel to a maximum of 10 gallons per minute (gpm), with the stated goals of reducing evaporative emissions and promoting safety by ensuring the integrity of the nation’s refueling infrastructure.

Officially dubbed “61 FR 33033 – Regulation of Fuels and Fuel Additives: Controls Applicable to Gasoline Retailers and Wholesale Purchaser-Consumers; 10 Gallon Per Minute Fuel Dispensing Limit Requirement Implementation,” the rule was finalized in January of 1993 and went into effect in 1996. Now, almost thirty years later, I think it’s time to revisit 61 FR 33033 in a way that helps reduce emissions even more.

The basic idea is this: instead of “just” asking for utility rate-payers and State or local governments to help cover the costs of rolling out an increasingly huge EV charging infrastructure that will never be big enough to convince the red hats it’s ready, anyway, we focus our lobbying efforts on slower gas pumps in blue states. Like, significantly slower gas pumps.

By reducing the maximum pumping speed from 10 gpm to 3 gpm, we could increase the minimum time to fill up a half-ton Ford F-150’s 36 gallon fuel tank (yes, really) from under four minutes to nearly twelve (12). Factor in the longer wait times ICE-vehicles would have to endure waiting in line to refuel, as well, and we’re talking about a 20-30 minute turnaround time to go from just 10% to a usable 80-or-90% fill.

Y’all see where I’m going with this?

Everybody wins

Way back in 2022, oil giant BP claimed that its BP Pulse electric vehicle chargers were “on the cusp” of being more profitable than its gas pumps. Now, three years and several technological leaps since, BP is investing billions to expand its EV charging infrastructure – and it doesn’t take a genius to realize that they’re expecting a positive ROI.

You don’t have to take my word for that, though. You can take big oil’s. “If I think about a tank of fuel versus a fast charge, we are nearing a place where the business fundamentals on the fast charge are better than they are on the (fossil) fuel,” BP head of customers and products, Emma Delaney, told Reuters.

Those fundamentals revolve around amenities. If you’re popping into a gas station for a three or four minute visit, you’re probably getting in and out as fast as you can. But if you’re there a bit longer? That’s a different story. You might visit the rest room, might buy a snack or order a coffee or suddenly remember you were supposed to pick up milk on your way home, even – and that stuff has a much higher margin for the gas station than the dino-juice, totaling 61.4% of all fuel station profits despite being a fraction of the overall revenue.

The other big winner, of course, is literally everyone. The forgotten costs of fossil fuels cost Americans billions in healthcare bills and environmental clean up each year, and untold trillions of dollars of military spending (to say nothing of the toll on three generations of American blood spilled in the Middle East to secure an affordable supply of oil).

With this plan, ICE-holes and Hemi zealots can continue to have their gas (if they decide it’s worth the wait, so be it). Meanwhile, the well-adjusted normals figure out real quick that it’s better, cheaper, and easier to charge at home.

The rest will take care of itself.

Related video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j47lkqObzk


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: elektrek; evchargers; evs; gaspumps

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To: Signalman

The ultimate, leftist, authoritarian thinking.


21 posted on 10/14/2025 10:20:44 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: Signalman
Why is it, when Progressives/Socialists/communists, want to change something, they ALWAYS punish the majority of the people with asinine ideas. I just wish I could pull into a gas station and get 4 tires changed, 25 gallons of gas, a drink of water, and the windshield cleaned, all in 20 seconds just like in a NASCAR Race.
22 posted on 10/14/2025 10:26:14 AM PDT by Retgearjammer
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To: Signalman

Struggling to figure out if this is satire since it is so insane.


23 posted on 10/14/2025 10:29:23 AM PDT by gunnut
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To: Signalman
If you’re popping into a gas station for a three or four minute visit, you’re probably getting in and out as fast as you can. But if you’re there a bit longer? That’s a different story. You might visit the rest room, might buy a snack or order a coffee or suddenly remember you were supposed to pick up milk on your way home

I, personally, am uncomfortable with starting a fill up, setting the clip, and walking away from my truck while it fills up. Because I don't leave the truck while it fills up, things like restroom time or convenience store time are in addition to the 5-8 minutes of fill-up time.

That's unlike when I take the EV on a road trip. Almost all of those charging stops are 10-15 minutes, including the restroom break. But I don't travel up north in the EV in the winter (when charging slows). Nor do I use free chargers (again, slow). If we take a road trip that's bad for EV charging, we take the gas pickup.

Given that, at least in my experience, charging the EV on road trips is done in about the time that gas fill ups take, I don't see what the fuss is. Combine that with the convenience of charging at home (for local driving plus the first leg of a road trip) plus the gas savings (home charged miles are cheaper than gas miles), and EV's already bring something to the table for some use cases. There's no need for govt incentives or mandates or limiting the experiences of gas drivers. Let the free market decide.

24 posted on 10/14/2025 10:29:55 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: Signalman

Since the end-game is 15-minute cities (aka “The Village” for everyone) anything that limits serfs’ movement is good.

It’s their first thought. Not “raise capacity” but “stifle the population” whether it’s shower heads or toilets, gas or heating.


25 posted on 10/14/2025 10:32:21 AM PDT by No.6
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To: Signalman

“ Everybody wins.”

No, they don’t.

These people are demonstrably insane.

Dangerously insane.

L


26 posted on 10/14/2025 10:33:59 AM PDT by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.l)
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To: Signalman
The other big winner, of course, is literally everyone.

One sign of a very weak argument, is the term “of course”. By definition, people who are forced to waste (time, energy, emotional energy) against their wishes do not consider themselves to be beneficiaries.
27 posted on 10/14/2025 10:35:59 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))
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To: Signalman

I want to start this conversation by pointing out that there’s a precedent for this idea.
——-
The Cavalry used to shoot Indians. There is precedent for that idea, too. Some ideas are so stupid, only an intellectual could believe them.


28 posted on 10/14/2025 10:37:39 AM PDT by Freedom4US
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To: VTenigma

“How about we make batteries that can be recycled as easily as ICE cars so we don’t end up with an environmental disaster before too long.”

Already done there is no less than four different ways to take the materials out of old packs and either repurpose the good cells for second life or recover the elements and make new battery grade cathode and anode materials. I have 60kw of second life power banks behind the homestead those cells came out of EV packs they get cycled couple times a week or if the grid goes down they can run my place over night easy. Lithium and cobalt are now worth so much a kg no one is putting them in land fills it all comes down to what is the element worth.

Second life, and elemental recovery these are Tesla former executives.

https://www.redwoodmaterials.com/

Aqueous recovery

https://www.metso.com/portfolio/battery-black-mass-recycling-process/

https://www.aquametals.com/better-lithium-ion/

https://www.ameslab.gov/news/new-lithium-ion-battery-recycling-method-is-earth-friendly-and-more-economical

Plasma recover.

https://www.plasmacombustion.com/product-recycling_ewaste.html

Hydromet, there is at least half a dozen hydromet ways.

https://atomfair.com/battery-primer/subtheme.php?id=G58


29 posted on 10/14/2025 10:39:33 AM PDT by GenXPolymath
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To: Signalman

They are already painfully slow: 10 seconds per gallon or less. Anybody pump their own gasoline before the self-serve pumps became the norm? They are actually very fast.


30 posted on 10/14/2025 10:42:09 AM PDT by GingisK
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To: Signalman

I’d probably clean my windshield more often and more thoroughly.


31 posted on 10/14/2025 10:45:33 AM PDT by gloryblaze
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To: Signalman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j47lkqObzk


32 posted on 10/14/2025 10:46:56 AM PDT by tcox4575
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To: Signalman

Umm, how about you publish your home address so you can be hunted down like the dog you are? How ‘bout dat?

Typical commie trash trick, instead of encouraging excellence, slow down the competition.


33 posted on 10/14/2025 10:50:06 AM PDT by bobbo666
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To: Signalman

My nearby farmer friends with their 300 gallon storage tanks would make a lot of dough off this.


34 posted on 10/14/2025 10:52:04 AM PDT by SaxxonWoods (Annnd....TRUMP IS RIGHT AGAIN.)
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To: Signalman

I thought it’d bee the Bee.

BUT HE’S SERIOUS!!! ROFL!


35 posted on 10/14/2025 10:56:44 AM PDT by Nervous Tick (Hope, as a righteous product of properly aligned Faith, IS in fact a strategy.)
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To: Signalman
With this plan, ICE-holes and Hemi zealots can continue to have their gas (if they decide it’s worth the wait, so be it). Meanwhile, the well-adjusted normals figure out real quick that it’s better, cheaper, and easier to charge at home.

Electric vehicles would have a much better adoption rate if so many EV advocates weren't such snotty douchebags.
36 posted on 10/14/2025 10:58:37 AM PDT by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: Signalman

>> With this plan, ICE-holes ... can continue to have their gas

Oh, now I’m an ICE-hole because I drive a conventionally fueled vehicle!

Okay, make that an “ultra-MAGA Christian nationalist far-right ICE-hole”.

(did I forget anything?)


37 posted on 10/14/2025 10:59:18 AM PDT by Nervous Tick (Hope, as a righteous product of properly aligned Faith, IS in fact a strategy.)
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To: Signalman

this is a quintessential Harrison Bergeron “solution”:

https://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html


38 posted on 10/14/2025 11:01:19 AM PDT by catnipman ((A Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils Still Counts As A Vote For Evil))
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To: Signalman

NO!

I don’t want to waste time filling my fuel tank.

I’m sick of the government trying to save us from ourselves.


39 posted on 10/14/2025 11:02:07 AM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus….)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

10gpm fills my expedition in 2 min 45 seconds. When I had rheVolvo S60 it would fill it in under 2 min at 10gpm. My F250 is diesel and it’s also 10gpm for diesel pumps so 3 min 30 seconds if the pumps are running at full rates. The down in the ground pumps which actually move the fuel have a fixed rate the “pump” with the hose is a dispenser all it does is measure the output volume. If you have every hose in use you are not going to get 10 gpm at each outlet. Go to Sam’s Club on a weekend when every pump is in continuous use it will take 10+ min to fill a truck that would have taken 3 if it was solo.

My Tesla’s both take 250kw DC the model 3 with a 75kWh usable pack if it could take the full 250 from 10% to 100% it would take 0.3 of an hour or 18min. It normally gets L2 ac at 240v and in 6.5 hours while I sleep using kWh I put in the grid from my solar panels on the steel building above it. So it’s only cost is the lost power sale revenue for the excess the homes didn’t use during the day.

I don’t ever worry about fast charging rates, or locations or time. My model 3 sees a fast DC once or twice in 6 months it’s a nonissue. I can take the 3 LR to Austin direct, drive around all over the city the day and night I get there and plug it in at my condo over night while I sleep off the West 6th st hangover walking distance to my condo. Or go to Ft Worth hit some BBQ , the stockyards and come back never worry about range thats 125 miles round trip it has a 375 mile range. Only Houston needs a single 10 min stop at bucees no less ,by the time I grab a six pack, jerky and take a leak it has plenty to make the rest of the run, drive around Htown for dinner and night life then have the valet parking guy plug it in the L2 it will be full by morning I’ll overnight L2 once more before leaving back to big D. Again such a nonissue only people who have never had experience with a Tesla have mind issues the cars are great and FSD is the best it’s why I have two of them. If BYD would sell the Seal Qi here with their L3 driving I would buy two of them the first day sold. That’s the plug in hybrid that gets 90+ mpg , 1300 miles total range and 80 miles off the plug for $15000 USD if they sold it at the China price here for a full sized sedan at that.


40 posted on 10/14/2025 11:03:33 AM PDT by GenXPolymath
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