New McDonald's will feed hungry EVs

subscribe

A Big Mac with a jolt of juice is on the menu at a new Raleigh-area McDonald's that will be the first in the nation to feature electric car charging stations.

The new McDonald's opened with two battery charging units for patrons of the restaurant or the nearby shopping center to use free of charge.

McDonald's said it will add charging stations to parking lots at some of its restaurants across the country if the Cary venture proves successful.

"This new Cary location will help us evaluate the tactics of green building," said McDonald's spokeswoman Danya Proud. The McDonald's stations will be among the first public car chargers in the state.

NovaCharge, the Florida-based distributor of the ChargePoint stations, says the McDonald's chargers are a new option for electric car owners who now mostly charge at home.

"The typical electric car is going to go about 40 miles on a charge," said Helda Rodriguez, president of NovaCharge. Public charging stations help eliminate "range anxiety" for electric car owners who are afraid of running out of juice while on errands or sitting in traffic.

The units are manufactured by Coulomb Technologies and cost about $5,000 a piece. NovaCharge says it has distributed hundreds of units in the U.S.

Advocates argue electricity is cleaner, cheaper and a more secure source of energy for cars than oil since it can be produced domestically. But the numbers haven't caught up with the buzz.

"Right now there are under 1,000 all-electric cars in the U.S.," said Felix Kramer, the founder of CalCars.org, a California-based nonprofit.

So who's going to top-off their battery at the Cary McDonald's?

Peter Eckhoff, president of the Triangle Electric Auto Association, estimates there are only "several dozen" electric cars in the Triangle region.

He said McDonald's plan is "farsighted" but on the cutting edge: "As demand grows, the chargers will be there."

Related News

ontario hydro lines

Opinion: Cleaning Up Ontario's Hydro Mess - Ford government needs to scrap the Fair Hydro Plan and review all options

TORONTO - By Mark Winfield

While the troubled Site C and Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam projects in B.C. and Newfoundland and Labrador have drawn a great deal of national attention over the past few months, Ontario has quietly been having a hydro crisis of its own.

One of the central promises in the 2018 platform of the Ontario Progressive Conservative party was to “clean up the hydro mess.” There certainly is a mess, with the costs of subsidies taken from general provincial revenues to artificially lower hydro rates nearing $7 billion annually. That is a level approaching the province’s total pre-COVID-19 annual…

READ MORE

California scorns fossil fuel but can't keep the lights on without it

READ MORE

US Grid Gets an Overhaul for Renewables

US Grid Gets an Overhaul for Renewables

READ MORE

reloadland-2025-berlins-premier-electric-motorcycle-festival-returns

Reload.Land 2025: Berlin's Premier Electric Motorcycle Festival Returns

READ MORE

scotland wind farm

Community-generated green electricity to be offered to all in UK

READ MORE