We've talked here about the chicken and egg dilemma facing consumers looking to drive alternatively-fueled vehicles--do they wait for more fueling spots to open, or do they buy now and the share demand starts to push investor to open more fueling facilities?
In CA, as you'll see here, the answer is to start retrofitting existing gas stations. Looks like a smart answer to us.
Also, in answer to a comment posted on this blog (thanks so much), we do have a 175,000 kw solar array up on our facility, and our building (Arpin Group) is one of the most efficient in the State, We, in fact, just finished a remodeling of our corporate offices that reduced our energy usage by 50%, and 40% of the remaining energy we burn comes from renewable energy.
How about you?
Now, to the story:
The Gas Station of the Future Just Opened
"Matt Horton wants to solve a problem that makes alternative-fuel vehicles unappealing to would-be buyers: lack of convenient places to refuel. Last month, the chief executive officer of Propel Fuels opened the country’s first station where drivers can pump gasoline, ethanol, and biodiesel, cyclists can get tune-ups, and commuters can find public transit schedules. Backed by more than $19 million in venture capital and nearly $12 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and the California Energy Commission, the 23-person Redwood City (Calif.) startup received yesterday an additional, $10.1 million grant from the commission to help build 100 stations around the state in the next four years.
With its alternative-fuel pumps at about two dozen other stations, Propel is laying the foundation for what the 37-year-old Horton calls the “slow, but exciting” transformation of the U.S. automotive industry. Despite increased consciousness about their benefits, roughly only 3,100 of the 160,000 filling stations across the country sell alternative fuels, according to the Department of Energy. “The gasoline stations don’t want a competitor but the alternative fuels industry is dependent on its largest competitor as a pathway to the market,” says Geoff Cooper, vice president of research and analysis at the Renewable Fuels Association. “In many cases, you aren’t going to see a retailer take a gasoline pump out of commission to put in a product that competes with gasoline.”
Four-year-old Propel, which Horton says had more than $10 million in revenue last year and has been averaging 300 percent growth since 2010, is removing that obstacle by selling directly to drivers. It’s using its experience pioneering the model across California and software it built to choose locations. The new filling station, near Anaheim, is in “one of the top 10 trade areas [in California] for alternative fuels, based on the customer demographics, vehicle counts, and traffic patterns,” Horton says. “In this business, the vehicle drives everything. You can have all the infrastructure in the world, but if there aren’t any vehicles around that use it, it’s not going to make any difference.”
Propel provides information about alternative fuels at its pumps, since studies have shown that more than one-third of drivers of flex-fuel cars don’t realize their cars can run on something other than gasoline. And it encourages customers to sign up for a system that tracks their carbon emissions. They can then log on to Propel’s website for customized reports about the benefits they’re getting from avoiding imported fuel.
Propel is “a remarkable company, like the Apple Store of the alternative energy market,” says Jim Lane, editor and publisher of BiofuelsDigest, a daily online publication. “We have these transformative fuel products that are being sold as commodities, like computers used to be sold. But Apple (AAPL) really showed that if you start thinking about customer experience you can change people’s minds and get them thinking about something in a whole new way.” Being first to market is a risk, Lane acknowledges. “There are not a lot of companies that are trying this. But 10 years ago, they called them crazy in Cupertino, too.”
You can find the rest of the story at: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-01/the-gas-station-of-the-future-just-opened
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