On Thursday, a Taco Bell franchise in South San Francisco opened its first ultra-fast charging station in the parking lot.
The restaurant chain, in partnership with ChargeNet Stations, plans to open solar-powered charging stations at 100 Taco Bell locations in California over the next year.
“You can get an EV charge and a chalupa all in one easy stop,” said ChargeNet Stations CEO and Founder Tosh Dutt. The ChargeNet Stations offer, on average, a 100-mile charge in 20 minutes for about $20.
@ChargeNetStnUS has unveiled its first “ultra-fast” #EV charging stations at a @tacobell in Southern California.
More than 100 California Taco Bell restaurants are set to install fast charging tech from ChargeNet Stations in the next year.#uspolihttps://t.co/u99lzoD8nv
— Clean Energy Canada (@cleanenergycan) October 19, 2022
The companies say the locations are being chosen to make EV charging available in traditionally underserved communities, providing charging access to people who may not have a home charging station.
California plans to ban the sales of new gas-powered cars and trucks by 2035, and analysts estimate that, by 2040, there will be 64 million electric vehicles in the U.S. To date, we’ve only built 4% of the charging stations needed to charge them all.
That’s potentially a lot of cars waiting in the drive-thru in need of something more than a chalupa.
“We’re solving a demand problem we know is coming,” said Dutt.