At a certain point of EV adoption, selling gas won’t be a very profitable business, because fewer and fewer cars will need it. But there will still be some cars that need gas, that final, say, 30% of ICE cars that are still on the road. But if all or most gas stations shut down at roughly the same time, because they operate under the same business conditions, then those last few ICE drivers will be pretty out of luck, no?
To be clear, this is not an argument that we shouldn’t electrify and decarbonize as fast as possible. I’m more interested in the logistics of managing that transition. And I’m sure that gas stations are not the only case of this phenomenon.
They’ll be replaced with rapid charging stations.
This is already happening. Not too far from where I live, right on a main road, a BP station closed down late last year and they’re in the process of replacing it with a 20-bay BP Pulse rapid charging station with an attached store and café.
They’re going to make a fucking killing. And not just because they charge almost £1 per kWh.
The WaWa gas station near me has more charging stations than gas pumps, and they are always full of cars charging.
And of course they sell beer and diet coke a cigarettes, coffee, snacks. The gas is just to get people in the door, and charging takes longer, I’m sure they’ll be fine.
The smart ones
Selling gas is already not profitable. They typically sell it at slightly above cost. The real money maker is the convenience store attached.
Costco sells gas at a loss.
And even then the average person with a Costco credit card is waiting in line to save $3 per 10 gallons of gas. So a typical gas station might be netting less than $5 per tank.
Way less than $5 per tank, more like 5¢/gallon at an average gas station. They make 70¢ off me filling my tank.
But the credit card is an extra 5% on gas. Most other cars might do 3% on gas so that might only be netting 2% or an extra 10 cents off per gallon.
And this has been the case since the early 70’s
That’s true but the business model is built around the quick fill up. Incentives will change when people have to spend an hour at their stop. Also a majority of people will not be driving far enough from their house to need it. I think convenience stores will stick around except the ones that operate off highways. Those ones will have to change into what high way rest stops are. It would also be possible just to install chargers at existing rest stops.
Yeah, downtown there are tons of gas-station brands that are just convenience stores. Surely many gas stations will offer electric charging but since most people will be charging at home the total number of gas stations will surely drop. Some will turn into convenience stores and some will just shut down.
They won’t all close at the same time. They don’t operate under the same business conditions.
They operate under very similar business conditions, and any small difference will dictate which one will close first.
Same thing that happened to horse stables
I doubt gas stations will make very appealing AirBnBs
Around me they’re turning into mediocre bbq joints and cbd stores.
They could make for an alright brewery. Sure, it wouldn’t be the prettiest, but a pre-built covered outdoor seating area is hard to come by. The entirior would need a lot of work though.
Rented out as housing to the youngest generation for exorbitant prices?
The gas stations around me are displacing fast food. If you need food for fast & cheap, you go to a gas station. I have a feeling this is intentional, they’re trying to secure a new business model for when/if we stop using gasoline.
In many country, relatively few shop can be open 24/7 and gaz stations are one of them, so selling high margin groceries and boose helps a lot.
But realistically, people will need loading stations for electric car, and if the load time is 30minutes, you need a coffee shop to have people waiting
Alcohol at petrol stations dreamy Scandinavian drooling
Whatever the future of petrol, you gotta consider they sell way more than fuel. They’re called convenience stores for a reason, which I semi-jokingly refer to as addiction stations. They can and do sell basically anything they legally can that people are addicted to, beer, cigarettes, soft drinks, energy drinks, candy, hot food, etc…
So, whatever the long term future of petroleum, the stores themselves for the most part aren’t going anywhere, they’ll keep selling every sort of quick grab fast selling goto items that keep the customers coming back.
They’ll start selling weed probably lol
You’re not too far off base actually, remember when convenience stores used to sell spice?..
They’ll sell whatever they legally can, and even then some things are still in that grey area…
They sell cratom too.
Spice? I’m not hip on drugs, idk what that even is!
Edit I looked it up lol. Never done drugs besides coffee so I had no idea what spice was looool
Whatever it is, it must flow.
Most likely fuel stations will retreat to outside of city borders, and obviously a lot being shut down and even more people being laid off along the way. It’ll happen slowly but there’ll be three or four local ones suddenly disappearing practically overnight, the last few being the ones clinging on for dear life due to having no better options until the inevitable closure.
Predominantly in Texas, Buc-ees is nominally a chain of gasoline stations but they’re known for the stores attached to the station, selling all manner of kitsch but also fast food. Ok, they’re also known for having 100+ pumps at each location. But that’s important because it means they’ve always been located at the periphery of city boundaries, on huge lots, usually on the highways into or out of town.
When the gasoline business dries up, Buc-ees still has other business interests to keep them going in the road travel market, and they have real estate along major corridors that could be redeveloped. One option is to invite businesses that occupy motorist’s time while parked charging their electric cars, like wayside attractions (besides Buc-ees itself, obviously). Another would be to fully entrench themselves: develop a hotel so that visiting business people always stop at the Buc-ees before leaving.
So while neighborhood fuel stations would see a slow demise, Buc-ees can turn their fuel locations into new cash cows. This is why diversification is so important.
In Norway, the same petrol stations are still here, but with charging stations as well. So even if there are new places with solely electric charging next to Ikea or fast food shops, the regular petrol stations run as they always have.
Edit to add that some stations have transitioned to unmanned stations where you stop, tap your card and fill. Forgot that as I don’t drive unless I rent a car for special needs.
Many in Urban areas will be fine for quite some time. Others with more space have already started adding EV charging, and increasing the presence of their convenience operations since EV charging customers will be at the properties a bit longer than normal gas fueling customers.
It’s just a pivot on their profit model and focus.
“Adding EV chargers to gas stations” is the missing EV network everyone keeps talking about. That and starting to add them to things like roadside restaurants like Denny’s or Cracker Barrel - spend at least $50 on food to get your charging validated!
Some can be converted to EV chargers. It’s considered contaminated ground, so the options are limited without expensive remediation. Depending on the economic situation they may just be abandoned.
They won’t all shut down at once. The ICE cars won’t all turn off at once; they’ll fade.
Here they pay a hefty bond to put in the tanks, it’s cheaper to remediate the site and get the bond back
Good idea.
There are still a few stations without that, but it has been the norm for new or remodled stations for decades in the us.
There have always been fuel stations that get shut down and you see them around town already either abandoned, repurposed (often hand car washes) or demolished and built over.
As these gradually shut down in the future, I wonder if some could just go straight to becoming commercial charger stations. Or if anyone can think of a better use for a large outdoor covered parking area + large underground storage tank + small convenience store.
one will close - but everyone will go to the other 3 on the intersection thus saving them for a few years. Then another… and soon the one across town closing helps those left.
the average car is 12 years old so there is a lot of life left in gas stations even after all new cars are ev. once you have a station a lot of the costs are sunk costs so you won’t close just because demand drops a little. Chains will build less as the numbers stop working but they will build in places for a while while closing other locations.
They’ll be closed and turned into bistros like the ones in my city have been. Actually pretty cool to go dine at, and be outside and sheltered, what with the steel canopy where the pumps were…
They already don’t make money off gas
Their profits are the stuff in the store, the excuse people have for overpaying is that they’re already there.
We’ll see a lot close, and the ones that remain grow to be basic conscience stores.
They’ll still have the gas pumps, because it’s expensive to remove them. But new builds will likely just be parking lots instead of pumps.
The old stations would be what people have to rely on.
As such the ones on the outskirts would be the ones that close first.
Last gas stations will be in downtown areas where getting rid of 60 year old pumps wouldn’t gain anymore parking than people parking at the pumps.
Gas makes money. The margins are low - but the volumes are high. Most people are not buying what is inside so while margins are higher the profit is about the same
The reality is that gas station profit margins on fuel are famously thin. After accounting for the wholesale cost of gasoline, taxes, and credit card processing fees (which can be a significant percentage of the transaction), the net profit on a gallon of gas can be just a few cents. This makes relying on fuel sales alone a risky proposition. The market is volatile, and a small swing in wholesale prices can wipe out your already slim margins.
https://petrosoftinc.com/blog/how-do-gas-stations-grab-profit/
Thin margins doesn’t mean unprofitable.
