Swedish McDonald's might offer plug-in hybrid stations soon
A book I read a long time ago about the rise of McDonald's in America explained that what Ray Kroc was really interested in was real estate, not hamburgers. The idea being that if you made your food available absolutely everywhere, then you would always be an option for people when they got hungry. Since there are now so many McDonald's restaurants, it makes sense that plug-in vehicle proponents in Sweden are gearing up to use all those acres of parking lots for PHEV charging stations. Treehugger says that the plan will see McDonald's paying to install the posts while the Elforsk company makes sure there is enough juice to the posts to charge vehicles quickly (more information in this Swedish PDF). A 230 volt - 16 amp pilot post should be installed at a Stockholm McDonald's soon. The posts will be made by Eldon, which currently says it will take between 30 and 45 minutes to fully charge an EV or PHEV. Perhaps Better Place should step in and suggest putting battery-swapping robots in the drive through lane. [Source: Elforsk via Treehugger]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
vfx 7:02PM (2/16/2009)
Typo in your title
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Sebastian 7:02PM (3/03/2009)
typo fixed
真相創傷 9:14PM (2/16/2009)
Typo or not ...
The TRUTH !!! is that
ABG have TOTALLY IGNORED NEWS THAT
SWEDEN IS SETTING A LEADING AGENDA IN
* WIND-POWER INVESTMENTS,
* EV-CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE,
* ENERGY EFFICIENCY BOOSTING, and
* ENVIRONMENT PRESERVATION PROGRAMS that are the most ambitious
in Europe - and are NOT pointing finger to China or India for having the worst
increases in pollution, but instead going for the lead.
ONLY WHEN U.S. IMPERIAL "McDonalds" TRIES TO BEAT THE OPINION...
- " meat production is worse to the climate than the whole transport sector alltogether " -
...WITH A FEW SYMBOLIC CHARGING POLES, DOES ABG TAKE NOTICE .
>>> The Truth Hurts
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Phil L. 9:35PM (2/16/2009)
真相創傷 -
ABG has ignored Sweden? Since when?
Go to the ABG "Search" window at the top of the page and enter "Sweden". Yes, Sweden's goals and achievements have been covered here on ABG. Perhaps you'd like more coverage; that's your prerogative. But it hasn't been "totally ignored."
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Roger 5:09AM (2/17/2009)
The comment at the end "maybe Better Place should have battery swap stations in the drive thru lane" dramatically illustrates the utter stupidity of the battery swap scheme. A charging pole costs maybe a couple thousand euros, has no moving parts, charges the car while you eat lunch (probably for free) and lasts forever. The swap system? Yikes! Lots of €€€ Robots, heavy lifting, etc etc. I can't even imagine. And for what? A few minutes gained in getting a charge. Slow down, go inside and let your kids play for a while.
Charging poles will be like free Wifi at coffee shops - gets people to come in and buy your stuff while they wait 20 minutes (and you might even get a profit from the charging pole).
Who should really look at this is Sonic - they already have 99% of the infrastructure!
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Aimless6 4:36AM (2/17/2009)
There is a small mistake in the posted charge time. You can not fully charge a EV battery in 30 minutes with a 16 A lead. The plugs on the photo only deliver 3.6 kW. Even with a 3 fase leads it's only 11 kW. The Think's batteries are 19-28 kWh.
The Treehugger article had it right:
"Eldon, the company that is producing the posts, said 30-45 minutes would be the average charging time"
That DOES NOT mean the battery is FULL in 30 minutes. Only that customers spend that time eating their burger.
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Stan Wellaway 11:05AM (2/17/2009)
I agree Roger. Even if governments don't demand that every truckstop and M-way service station be equipped with recharge facilities as a condition of licence, savvy owners of restaurants, motels, etc., will see the sense in offering them, with free or subsidised electricity, to lure customers in. Likewise owners of shopping malls who could persuade people to linger longer if their carparks included free or discounted recharge facilities. Discount related to shop expenditure.
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