Why are the chains of KFC, McDonald’s, Starbucks… racing to install electric charging stations?

Electric vehicles have become more and more popular globally as manufacturers increasingly focus on this type of environmentally friendly vehicle. Instead of using traditional gas stations, electric cars use charging stations to recharge. And this is also the concern of many food and beverage brands when they seem to be rushing into a race to install power stations – which is considered an irresistible advertising and customer attraction channel. better in the future.

The race officially started two years ago when KFC had its first charging stations from 2020 through a partnership with a third party. Their partner is none other than Instavolt, one of the famous charging station service companies in the UK. Only in the country where this company is headquartered, they have provided about 500 charging stations across the country by the time of signing the contract with KFC.

Instavolt chargers at this time had a capacity of about 50kW and could be used for most electric vehicles at the time. In 2020, this is considered a real revolution for electric car support services and opens a new way to attract customers for KFC.

By 2022, the company will continue to deploy more charging stations globally, including Indonesia. Here, they have installed charging stations at two of their facilities, with the hope of attracting more customers to KFC as well as using more environmentally friendly cars.

In emerging markets like Indonesia, people are starting to use electric vehicles more; therefore, the provision of charging stations will further enhance KFC’s brand in this country.

Instavolt’s charging station at KFC (Image: Instavolt)

KFC’s rival McDonald’s is no less competitive when they and Instavolt have a cooperation agreement from June 2020 in the installation of electric charging stations in the UK. At the same time, they together with Vattenfall installed 28 charging stations in the Netherlands.

Both McDonald’s partners benefit from being able to sell electricity to these energy-powered cars, while the fast food company attracts more customers to them.

In August this year, McDonald’s partnered with Endesa X Way in Spain to install 150 more charging stations in the country. Endesa X Way is a company that owns more than 300,000 charging points worldwide, and cooperates with many major brands.

Since 2019, McDonald’s has installed a total of 156 charging stations in 60 stores across the country, and with the goal of continuing to expand the partnership to attract more customers, the company has come up with a full plan. bold above with partners. Chargers installed in Spain range from 43kW to 350kW with the ability to fully charge the battery to 80% in just 30 minutes. This is also a mutually beneficial cooperation deal from this fast food brand with a partner.

Image of a charging station at a McDonald’s (Image: Climate Action)

Besides McDonald’s and KFC, an extremely famous beverage brand, Starbucks, is no less competitive in this race. In partnership with Volvo – an equally well-known brand, Starbucks plans to install 60 of its ChargePoint charging stations in 15 locations across the US.

This famous American coffee company even plans to install a Volvo charging station every 100 miles. Most current electric vehicles will be able to use these charging stations, providing customers with convenience. With the coverage of Starbucks and Volvo, this combination is expected to bring more customers to both sides.

Volvo’s charging station is installed at a Starbucks store (Image: ChargePoint)

Besides the three fast food companies mentioned above, a series of other fast food chains such as Dunkin Donuts, Burger Kings, Taco Bell… are also ready to soon enter the charging station installation market. They all hope that with electric vehicles becoming more and more popular today, providing customers with an indispensable utility that is a charging station will attract more and more people to these stores. In the opposite direction, partners installing charging stations will get a significant income from selling electricity for cars. This win-win situation further motivates food and beverage companies to further promote the installation of electric charging stations in front of their stores.