Fastned: question is not if, but when tanker operator steps into charging
“Do you choose to charge, is a rhetorical question,” according to Martijn Repko, Country Director Netherlands at fast-charging company Fastned. Because the question is not whether, as a petrol station operator, you choose to charge, but when.
There are currently one million plug-in cars in the Netherlands and this number doubles every five years. So the market is clearly heading in the direction of electric driving, Fastned knows. “So the question for the pump owner is when to switch and not if,” says Country Director Martijn Repko.
Independent pump owners say the business model is flawed. They have to invest, but the charge card issuers ‘run with the money’.
Repko: “Interesting point of view. Look, we open a new charging station somewhere in Europe every week. We don’t do that because we charge, but because we make money from it. So there is a market for charging, I’m convinced of that. But of course, what I cannot say for an individual entrepreneur is how much he earns from refuelling and how long he can continue to do so. The number of classic fuel cars is declining, so at some point the pot of money left in there will be exhausted. I think many pump owners will be surprised with the opportunities in the charging market. It’s also important to consider how you see the future role of the land you have. There are many opportunities there to do something, such as continue to operate part of the land yourself with refuelling and a shop, and find a partner to work with for the charging station.”
So what is the answer to the question of when to transition?
Repko: “That is of course a difficult question. Especially for a pump owner who has been in petrol and diesel for years, it is a very new market. First of all, it’s good that you are exploring it. It’s a big investment, it’s complex stuff, so my advice is to start looking in time, because just because you’re over, doesn’t mean you’re immediately over with your business. Secondly, I would advise you very much to find a good partner to do that with. Charging is different from refuelling, which is a mechanical process: you put a hose in the car, you squeeze, and the car is filled. Charging consists of two computers that have to communicate with each other. Like what happens when you want to connect a printer to your laptop, it doesn’t always work right the first time. while the EV driver wants that, they are looking for a gooey experience and assurance that everything works as it should. So find a partner who can offer them that, and make sure they can drive off again after ten minutes of charging. And as a pump owner, they can also help you assess where the market is going, what you can earn. They can also relieve you, by taking care of the whole process, so the customer doesn’t come back after one time because the charging station didn’t work. As a pump owner, you then continue to operate the shop yourself, for example, and own the land with income.”
Is that something Fastned would like to do in the future?
Repko: “We definitely want to do that. We also work with the best partners for things that are not our core business. Take our location in Brecht, between Antwerp and Breda. There we set up a shop operated by a local entrepreneur. We put up a Fastned station there, because for charging they like to come to the security of our brand, for our reputation. The wrong way to do it is to put one or two chargers at your pumps and think it will work that way. Because if the car driver has the choice between your single charger and there is a reputable lot ten kilometres away with ten or 12 chargers, and you have the security of not having to queue there, they will choose that. I understand the consideration of switching incrementally, but if you do that you run the risk of not being attractive and therefore not earning good money on it. So dare to think big and make a plan as an entrepreneur on how you will prepare for the future and switch to charging. Fastned itself is also investing in the conversion from petrol station to charging station in places that are not directly along the motorway. Besides offering market-based rental or purchase prices, we also co-invest up to 200,000 euros in the conversion to a full Fastned fast-charging station. By doing so, you will attract new customers who on average have about 20 minutes to spend to buy food or drinks. That could be an attractive business, also considering the ban on tobacco sales from 2030. We would therefore like to get in touch with entrepreneurs who are interested in this. Please check our website for this.”
What pitfalls still lie ahead when switching to charging?
Repko: “The main one is that you make the decision too late, especially considering the Dutch congestion problems. Because if you ask for your connection later than others, you will be at the back of the queue when capacity might be available again in five years’ time. The second is that you are going to do it the wrong way. It is quite an investment, so you have to know in advance how big you want your grid connection to be, what kind of technology you want to put in place, how many charging poles you want. And how will you ensure that people know how to find you? Because if you don’t, five years later you will be stuck with a pole that has not yet been paid off and is technically outdated. That is why we recommend working with a party like Fastned. They can completely take over the construction and operation of the station for you with the best charging concept that electric drivers actually gravitate towards.”
On a technical level, the sector is indeed still evolving. Don’t you run the risk anyway that if you jump too early, the technology you chose will soon be outdated?
Repko: “The technology for charging, the CSS connector is all widely accepted; those are not going to change overnight. If you install a charging station, it will be able to be used, there’s no doubt about that. The speed of charging does still develop quickly, but in that respect we still see that a charging station can pay for itself very well before it is written off and you would have to replace it with a faster one.”
What time frame are we talking about then?
Repko: “That varies somewhat and of course also depends on how long the manufacturer guarantees operation and how long you keep it in use. If I look at Fastned, I can tell you that we started installing 50kW chargers 12 years ago, and we have since started working on our fourth generation of charging stations, which go up to 400 kW. And I suspect that next year or the year after we will already be installing faster ones.”
We are all moving smoothly from the energy transition, but isn’t the reality that even after that, we will still be left with a long tail of fuel cars that will only slowly go away?
Repko: “Yes. There will still be petrol cars driving around for quite a while and so Volkswagen Golfs or whatever will still have to be able to find fuel somewhere. However, the majority will become electric. EVs are getting cheaper, in more and more segments they are available at a similar price and often even cheaper than a fuel car. Now you can already buy a very good electric car for 35,000, 30,000 euros, and these will be the used cars of four or five years from now. Add to that the fact that electric driving is also significantly cheaper than a petrol car and you know the trend is unstoppable. Those fuel cars will phase out because they are gradually going to run out of fuel actually. So it is important for a pump owner to weigh up whether they should still offer that by 2035 or 2040. The problem is that if you all take a wait-and-see attitude and look at each other, the fuel market will get smaller and smaller. But the supply where you can fill up remains the same. Obviously, that’s not good for your sales and your profits, so the logical step is to look to the future, and make sure you switch to a market that’s getting bigger and bigger and where policy is also increasingly opting in.”
Get your petrol station ready for the future. Fastned helps realise high-quality charging stations by investing up to €200,000 in ground cleaning, on top of an attractive rental or purchase price. Interested in partnering with Fastned? Discover the possibilities here.
This interview is part of a partnership agreement between Fastned and Mobility Energy and is outside editorial responsibility.
