At a Taco Bell in South San Francisco, diners can now plug in their electric cars while grabbing a burrito.
“Our chargers provide a 100% charge within 15 to 20 minutes, so they can come, park their car, charge up their car, get something to eat, and leave,” says Sharmila Ravula of ChargeNet Stations.
The company is partnering with fast food restaurants across California to install EV charging stations in their parking lots.
The stations will be paired with on-site solar panels and in some cases battery storage.
“The solar energy is either sent to the restaurants so that they can cut their utility energy usage,” Ravula says, “or the solar energy can be used to actually charge up these charging stations so that we can provide clean energy to the EV drivers.”
Ravula says that fast food restaurants are located across the U.S. And many are found in low-income areas, which may not have many other charging stations nearby. So the approach helps make electric vehicles more accessible to more people.
“It meets the vision that we have of democratizing EV charging,” she says.
And it helps reduce carbon pollution.
Reporting credit: Ethan Freedman/ChavoBart Digital Media