Grocery stores promoting gas discounts are not helping the transition away from gas vehicles
Large grocery stores around here offer cheaper gas if you shop at there store. This can be up to a dollar a gallon off.
I'm doing about 52 miles a day in an EV that costs me $0.90-$1.20 a day depending on the temperature. Including other fees from power company is based off use it's technically double so $1.80 to $2.40. Let me know where you are getting gas that cheap for ~2 gallons and I'll go fill up for my mower please!
I hate this shit. Groceries asking for phone numbers and cards and shit. I don't even give a shit about the unwarranted indefensible invasion of privacy. I just don't want to have to experience the interaction.
This is a very North American problem.
Not really. Here in Australia, our supermarket duopoloy does the same thing, offering discounts per litre. At the time it all started, the supermarket chains started buying into/acquiring petrol stations and rebranding them. This has been going on for over 20 years.
Recently, both supermarkets sold off their petrol station chains, but the sales included long-standing agreements to continue to offer discounts and loyalty program points for those that shop at the associated supermarket brand.
Don't worry, Australia can be honorary North American.
Happens often in Europe too
You have a choice in Europe.
Gas discounts are pretty small.
At least for Kroger, you get $0.03 baseline with no discount. After you spend $100, you get one fill up with $0.10 discount up to 35 gallons. My vehicle in particular has 11 gallons. So my maximum discount is $1.10, up from base line $0.33 discount. $1.10 discount per $100 spent is barely worth it.
Even if you used all 35 gallons, that's $3.50 discount per $100 spent.
So if you have a massive vehicle that takes 35 gallons, you can save $35 off the fill up after you spend $1000 in the store. Could you have saved that $35 by shopping at a different grocery store?
I eat meat daily, who thought grocery stores cared about the environment when trying to sell meat at "low costs" and advertising it as much as possible. If they sell beef, they are a big chunk of the beef.
Yes they are, many of the ones in our town have EV chargers in the front row that is free. And then further out are the gas pumps that cost money.
Gas stations themselves have loyalty programs as well. Same deal.
What do you expect from large coorporations? A conscience?
Yes, actually. And everyone else should, too.
Maybe they could also offer free EV charging spaces in parking stalls that are close to the store, in addition to still offering gasoline. They’re going to have customers that drive both.
They may not even have thought of it. If you’re a customer of such a place, you could suggest to them that there are people who drive EVs and a similar benefit for charging would attract those customers.
Of course it probably comes down to someone would need to decide it’s worth the investment of setting up a charging station, so it’s not going to be cheap or fast
I have never seen this except in the most gimmicky manner around me.
The "transition away from gas vehicles" and the "transition to electric vehicles" aren't the same thing and shouldn't be conflated.
The bulk of the transition should be to other forms of transportation, not simply subbing out disastrous gas automobiles for only-marginally-less-disastrous electric automobiles.
One problem is the lack of alternative transport options. In most of the US, public transport just isn't a thing. And things are too far apart for cycling to be efficient for commutes, grocery shopping, etc.
I hope that changes some day though.
I wish more people, more ordinary non-Lemmings, understood this.
Even if you can't get everywhere with a bike, you can definitely go some places. Last year, completely on accident, I went a whole month only using my car twice. 90% of my trips were to the grocery store and other close-by destinations.
Electric cars are just an evolution of the status quo designed as a pressure valve to prevent the momentum for real change from building up.
This is the part that needs to be rethought. Depending on speed and stuff, I can go about 200 miles on a charge. Want to go farther? Fine! DC fast charging is, in fact, fast. Plug in, take a pee break, stretch for a minute, and get a bite to eat. In 20 minutes, you can get a lot of charge in most cars (granted, my Chevy Bolt needs a little more time but that battery technology is relatively obsolete)
We already stop on the road for other reasons. It's not hard to combine stops, and it will only get easier as chargers get built up. Stop pretending we need to drive 500 miles without stopping, that's dangerous anyway.
More importantly, people should give more priority to more common needs. I plug my car in when I get home, like my phone, and just always have a charge. It is so much more convenient to never have to go to a local gas station again. Much better than older cars where it seemed like I had to go every couple of weeks.
Yes, recharging my EV is less convenient on road trips, but it’s more convenient 95+% of the time
Sure, but those need to exist at the appropriate locations, and be maintained in working order - neither of which is the current reality in a lot of places.
Add to that the lack of availability of affordable EVs and you are going to have the slow adoption we currently see.
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I was planning to get an EV of some sort the last time my vehicle needed to be replaced, but there were none available at the time that fit my budget and my needs.
I still intend to have one relatively soon, but the practical realities are still an impediment.
plugin hybrids to me are an important step. If it can do 10 miles without starting to use gas and the person plugs it in they will use very little gas.
The only problem with this idea is plugin hybrids should have been an important step. Why haven’t we already phased out pure gasoline vehicles for hybrid and plugin hybrid? We could have and should have done this when pure EVs were not yet practical.
But that time has passed. EVs are or could be practical for most uses, with current technology. Manufacturers don’t get to just build overpriced luxury vehicles and say “see, no one wants them: let’s go back to gasoline”. Not enough cheap EVs? We could if manufacturers would scale up, or if we allowed imports from China. Not enough charging stations? That’s just time and investment, and was rapidly changing at least up to Tesla’s layoffs. You don’t get to delay the build out and say “see, there’s not enough chargers”. Not enough raw materials? Huge discoveries in the last couple of years, and recycling ready to scale up as soon as enough vehicles are there. Not enough power in the grid? They only respond to steady growth in demand, and need that growth maintained over years. I suppose plug-in hybrid is better than gasoline but we’re really at the stage where EV technology is practical for most and the biggest impediment is just doing it
Not sure how to react with this one. On the one hand, we need a bigger and better used EV market, but on the other hand, this shouldn’t have been a surprise. It’s sort of like buying a 20 yr old Corolla, then complaining it can’t haul gravel