It's a Tesla station so not really a business. Probably just helps to sell more cars. Viable charging stations will have a convenient store and most charges in the future will be about 15 min. The large Tesla charging locations have a convenience store tied to it.

 

Uh-huh, a convenience store in the middle of a parking lot the size of New Jersey. These places are going to be about as pleasant to visit as a public bathroom at a rest area. Looking forward to seeing hilarious fight videos over empty spot, preferably some loud wallmart type women yelling and pulling each others hair.

 

Lol. I've been to ones with 24 stalls and never seen a single argument. People park and then plug in and either watch Netflix in their car or go to the bathroom. Californians aren't all that confrontational

 

Trendy EV owners are not too confrontational, wait until it goes more mainstream and some proletarian types start to gentrify your bubble.

 

I don’t really understand your bitterness and resentment of EVs/Tesla, Och. First you complain about the long lines that happened once a year. Then when progress is made to alleviate that pain point, you take up a new issue with the solution.

Those large Supercharging stations that bother you are also designed with faster chargers that lessen the amount of waiting, thus being able to serve more drivers. Secondly, some are outfitted with Tesla power storage to mitigate the load on the electrical grid during peak hours. Thirdly, some of the stations utilize Tesla solar panels to harness clean energy from the sun. A lot of smart thinking goes into designing the Superchargers and I’m sure Harris Ranch welcomes the extra business. I hear they have excellent steaks and BBQ there.

And a Tesla lounge is much nicer than a rest area bathroom, replete with a barista station. But you do you. We all can decide for ourselves what we want to drive.

 

I have nothing against Tesla in particular, but much like the OP has expressed his concerns, I also think a much better strategy for EVs would be standardized swappable batteries. For EVs to go full mainstream there needs to be proper, efficient infrastructure in place, and it's not going to be a bunch of sterile Tesla lounges full of hipsters watching Netflix.

 

Apparently Nio (maker of EVs in China) has embraced the battery swap model and has done it a claimed 650,000 times. I am surprised about this. You can see it begin at the 6min 20sec mark of the video below.

Indeed they proved it can work. I still prefer the charging station system. Like charger stations, the onboard car app tells the driver how many full batteries remain at the battery swap station. The station has to be manned at all times though. What if the employee is away at lunch or there’s an issue with your battery swap? Then the 3-minute swap can end up delaying you for who-knows-how-long? But again, they apparently have swapped many batteries this way.

 

Much like a manned gas station, this is totally possible, can can actually be a profitable business in the future. But for it to work, all manufacturers need to agree and standardize their batteries.

 

They can’t even agree on the same plug connection forget about same battery.