Starbucks has opened electric vehicle charging stations at 15 locations across 1,600 kilometers between Denver and Seattle in the United States as part of its partnership with Swedish automaker Volvo.
The 50 Volvo charging stations at Starbucks stores in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Washington can charge any electric vehicle with CCS1 or CHAdor connectors.
Starbucks and Volvo say part of the reason behind the project they announced last year was to address the lack of EV charging infrastructure in North America. As of this summer, there were only 32,000 publicly available DC fast chargers in the United States, a fraction of the country's 20,000 electric vehicles.
We chose the pilot route because Seattle and Denver are two fast-growing EV markets, but importantly, we saw an opportunity when it came to existing infrastructure that didn't have enough access to the city. A Starbucks spokesperson said.
Other food and retail chains are also capitalizing on Americans' growing interest in electric vehicles and the need for more charging stations. A growing number of companies such as Taco Bell, Whole Foods-Eleven and Subway are adding or planning to add EV chargers outside their stores.
What kind of electric vehicles will Starbucks' charging stations charge?
Currently, most electric vehicles manufactured in the U.S. by companies other than Tesla use CCS1 connectors for charging. CCS stands for Combined Charging System and was developed by the European Automobile Association. The Type 1 combo charging system is the most widely used EV charging plug in North America.
The CHAdemo connector was developed in Japan before the arrival of CCS. Some automakers in Asia have adopted them. For example, older Nissan EV models use these connectors.
Tesla's NACS leads
Tesla developed charging connectors and ports before CCS was created and called the North American Charging Standard (NACS). Tesla began allowing other car companies to use its designs last year. From General Motors and Ford to Volvo, Hyundai, Honda, and Mercedes, many automakers have announced that their new EV models will feature NACS.
Starbucks said it plans to offer EV charging stations that are compatible with NACS connectors and is "exploring partnerships" with other automakers to open more EV charging stations in the future.