Los Angeles (AFP)

The rise of electric vehicles is not only a revolution for manufacturers, it also changes the situation for gas stations, supermarkets and shopping centers, forced to adapt to the new needs of their customers, stressed distribution professionals at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

"I've been in the service station business for twenty years, and three years ago they were not interested in charging electric vehicles at all," recalls John Eichberger, executive director of the Fuels Institute, an interprofessional association. sector.

"In fact, they considered it to be the main threat to their business model, but now they realize that it's also their customers," he said in a discussion with other players in the distribution sector.

A problem for traditional service stations, the charging time of an electric vehicle is much higher than that required for refueling: twenty to thirty minutes minimum, even with ultra-fast chargers using direct current.

Even taking into account the purchases made in the margins of fuel (water, sweets, cigarettes ...), the average time spent at a gas station in the United States is about three and a half minutes, said Mr. Eichberger .

While in most cases the charging of electric cars is done at home or at work, conventional stations (around 145,000 in the United States) could however be equipped with ultra-fast chargers in order to attract customers.

They would propose parallel food or free wifi to encourage them to stay longer than now and thus expand their business model, the expert analysis.

"This is what we are pushing the industry to do, many have started and are trying to understand what their customers want," says John Eichberger.

- "It's going to be very complicated" -

"The figures I see suggest that in twenty years, 30% of all vehicles in circulation will be electric cars, which will require a form of refill.That will change our parking lots", summarizes for its part Ed Hudson, leader of Kroger, the second largest supermarket chain in the United States.

"The most important thing for us is to make sure that we will be able to develop our network of charging stations to avoid problems" and to ensure that Kroger's electric drive customers do not go to a better-equipped competitor. .

"How are we going to change our concept of removing passengers? Where are we going to put all these charging stations? How many companies will try to have their own charging system, like Tesla? It's going to be very complicated." says Hudson, who also cites the high cost of installing these stations on the car parks.

Regions "where we have very small car parks, because of the very high real estate prices", which limits the possibilities to install stations, noted Mr. Hudson at the auto show in Los Angeles.

It is also a big concern for shopping centers, sometimes faced with heavy contractual and regulatory constraints, added Daniel Segal, vice president of development of Simon Property group, the number one sector in the United States.

More than 1.18 million electric vehicles were in circulation in the United States at the end of March 2019, according to statistics from the Edison Electrical Institute. US sales were up 81% in 2018 compared to the previous year, representing approximately 17% of total sales worldwide.

© 2019 AFP