Public charging stations don’t just drive EV adoption; they also increase consumer spending at nearby businesses, a new MIT study found.
The study is based on data from over 4,000 charging stations in California and 140,000 businesses, using anonymized credit and debit card transactions to track changes in spending. Researchers used data from 2019 through June 2023, but skipped 2020 to minimize any skewing of the results by the coronavirus pandemic.
2023 Nissan Ariya at EVgo charging station
Using this data set, researchers found that opening a charging station in California boosted annual spending at adjacent businesses, on average, about $1,500 in 2019 and about $400 between January 2021 and June 2023.
To determine whether charging stations actually caused these spending increases, researchers compared data from businesses within 1,640 feet of a charging station before and after installation. The also analyzed data from similar businesses that weren’t near charging stations within the same timeframe.
Tesla charging
In addition to pushing EV drivers to spend more at nearby businesses, charging stations themselves can make money. In 2022 a BP executive said, under certain circumstances, fast-charging stations could even be as profitable as gasoline pumps. An AutoPacific study published earlier this year also found that EV drivers want gas-station perks at charging stations—hinting at another way to get drivers to stop and shop at local businesses.
This helps underscore the potential economic ripple effects of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program it backed. That program aims to start a national network of 500,000 EV chargers and, while that rollout is happening slowly due to a patchwork of local and utility rules, these results provide a picture of the economic growth they might help provide.
