Prime the charging points: why EVs are a not a threat to fuel retailers

With almost three-quarters of transport emissions produced by road vehicles, it’s no wonder that global governments are making bold commitments and setting targets to achieve a net-carbon future. This is spearheading the rapid introduction of electric vehicles (EVs), the biggest shift in the transport industry, since mass produced vehicles replaced horses in the 1920s. However with this shift to electrification, automotive manufacturers are not the only business being impacted. It also has monumental ramifications for a number of other associated mobility businesses, with fuel retail being just one of these sectors needing to adapt its offering.

Gilbarco Veeder-Root vision of a future forecourt. Offering EV charging and c-store automation whilst still meeting needs for petrol and diesel drivers.

For fuel retailers, it’s not so much a question of ‘if’ they should diversify their product offering to include the correct EV infrastructure, but ‘when’ the best time to make the change would be. While this shift in product offering comes with an element of uncertainty and apprehension, it also provides a huge opportunity for the sector as a whole to modernise and diversify its business offering to keep up with shifts in consumer behaviour and demand.

However, with this, there also needs to be a certain level of care and attention taken during this transition, to ensure that any changes made reflect the consumers’ needs and demand for petrol and diesel is still met during this phase.

From feedback we’ve received, many fuel retailers think it’s too early to implement the new infrastructure into their sites now, as EVs currently only account for around 1% of passenger cars in Europe, but we would advise these retailers that the benefits don’t stop at reducing emissions – there are many financial benefits to being an early infrastructure adopter that will ultimately reduce the long-term total cost of ownership.

EV drivers have various top-up options as more chargers are being installed at home, work and retail. | © Gilbarco Veeder-Root

Race to the grid

By being first to market in your area, you can not only delay potential competition from installing EV chargers, due to lack of perceived demand and initial cost, but will also futureproof your business and attract a new customer base.

Integrating the EV charger infrastructure to your site, before local competitors, will also guarantee you the required grid capacity. Even though electricity providers are heavily investing in cabling improvements, to meet perceived capacity requirements, there still may come a time where demand outstrips supply, as the number of businesses (not just fuel retailers) look to offer EV charging facilities on their sites.

If this were to happen, the costs to upgrade the required capacity could fall directly with the business to cover, drastically increasing the investment needed to implement the systems and ultimately deterring businesses to make the switch.

Staying relevant

The other biggest fundamental challenge that fuel retailers now face, with the introduction of EVs, is for the first time since motor vehicles became mainstream, the options for consumers to ‘top-up’ their vehicle has evolved. Consumers now face a greater level of choice and can decide where to charge with the options of allowing them to do it while at home, work or on the go. Home chargers are generally the slower AC chargers, rather than the quick-charging DC units found commercially, but this is now also a convenience issue: fuel stations offer a quicker charge but they are no longer the only place to visit to ‘fill up’.

EVerse™ - Gilbarco Veeder-Root’s end-to-end EV charging solution. | © Gilbarco Veeder-Root

Unlocking new revenue streams

Yes, there’s competition from home charging. But remember than many EV owners will not have a driveway and not have that option. Innovating the forecourt, therefore, can attract those drivers. Unique customer experiences, with extra goods and services, can make a business stand out from the competition and drive more revenue. After all, there’s plenty of things to do and to buy when you’re waiting for your vehicle to charge.

Get yourself on the EV charging map apps and there’s a massive opportunity for fuel and c-store retailers to upsell additional products and services to customer, when consumers do visit fuel retailers to charge their EVs. This is partly due to dwell times for charging EVs currently being around six times longer than when refuelling a petrol or diesel equivalent vehicle. But it is also helped by the fact that EVs can now be left to charge by themselves, something which hadn’t previously been possible with traditional refuelling (due to legalities around health and safety at the pump).

This means offering a limited range of products at a c-store should well and truly be in the past. Our customers are now looking to meet with consumer demand to offer an ‘one-stop shop’ with an extended range of items for sale as well as services, such as fast-food outlets, supermarkets, car wash and even parcel collection. Consumers will now look to complete a number of tasks all while waiting for their vehicle to charge and this is something that we can help our customers with during their digital transformation.

EVerse software help businesses to integrate EV chargers into their portfolio. | © Gilbarco Veeder-Root

With the widespread introduction and growing popularity of EVs, fuel retailers, as we know them, will fundamentally shift their role in society and if the migration is done correctly could continue to be an integral part of consumers’ lives. You will also be playing a key role in providing the infrastructure that Europe needs to support the wholesale drive to zero-emissions electrified vehicles.

Fuel retailers have the expertise and experience in running a network and with products, such as our EVerse software, which is an end-to-end solution, we can help these businesses to seamlessly integrate EV chargers into their portfolio, when the time is right for them.

Gilbarco Veeder-Root has more than 150 years’ expertise in the fuel retail sector and continues to strengthen its offering, including its e-Mobility portfolio, to ensure that it provides best in class hardware and software solutions that are able to be tailored to each customer’s specific and evolving business and market needs.

Gilbarco Veeder-Root can aid its customers at every step of the of the electrification journey, from initial enquiry to installation, helping to seamlessly integrate the new infrastructure with other existing back-end systems for a unified customer experience as well as offering ongoing servicing.

The next few years will prove pivotal for this sector, but if done well, we believe that fuel retailers can thrive, owning this new electrified market.

For more information or to request a no obligation consultation contact euenquiries@gilbarco.com or visit gilbarco.com/eu/emobility.