The world’s first gas station opened in 1905 at 420 South Theresa Avenue in St. Louis. The unassuming building featured a white picket fence, behind which ran a row of large tanks that pumped petroleum directly into a vehicle’s gas tank. Since then, the gas station model hasn’t changed all that much. Asphalt. Canopies. Credit card machines. Maybe a store.
The rapid ascent of electric vehicles has presented designers and carmakers with an intriguing opportunity to rethink the service station. And while most current EV charging facilities are more infrastructure than architecture, a radically new type of service station is on the horizon that takes advantage of the time gap people spend waiting for their cars to charge.
It couldn’t come at a better time. The need for charging capabilities is becoming acute—in the U.S., the ratio of EVs to chargers is 24 to 1, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). This has led the Biden administration to call for the opening of 500,000 charging stations by 2030, and to dedicate billions to supporting national electric vehicle infrastructure. There are opportunities for innovation, and if recent creative tweaks and a plethora of concept stations tell us anything, this already familiar model could be headed for exciting changes.
Right now, the Tesla Supercharger is by far the most ubiquitous, and reliable, type of EV charging station in the world, with over 45,000 globally. Tesla’s model doesn’t stray far from the traditional gas station model; the typical Supercharger features rows of chargers, sometimes powered by rooftop solar canopies, and offers the occasional seating area.
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