Everyone who has lived a reasonably long life can tell you about changes they have seen. Most people do not take advantage of the changes, but they can recall how the area has changed, ideally for the better of society. The reason is infrastructure takes time because if they build it, will they come? If you build it, is government funding or support highly desired. Once the infrastructure is in place and more people start using it, then the other elements of more housing and shopping and everything else in between arrives. Once everything has arrived the price of the land also rises, but the big money is made before everything arrives.

In an article by Jane Margolies of the New York Times News Service, EV charging stations are bringing in revenues to the retailers nearby. Unlike filling up gas, it takes time to charge batteries and what will people tend to do – shop for something.

New studies say retailers’ charging efforts may well be paying off: one peer-reviewed study by researchers at Boston University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison published this year looked at the impact of nearly 1,600 Tesla Inc Supercharger stations in more than 800 US counties and found a 4% increase within 200 meters after they were installed. At 150 meters, the researchers found an increase of 5% in sales.

At the moment, there are more than 200,000 public chargers across 74,000 stations. It is expected more than 1 million chargers by 2030 to keep with EV sales. 60% of the grants have gone to fuel and convenience stores, rest stops and service plazas. Under President Biden’s $5 billion plan to fill in the gap, more EV stations are expected, will President elect Trump continue or cut the program? who will make up the difference? what will happen to EV demand?

It costs about $7,000 to install the slow chargers and up to $175,000 for fast chargers for a 20 minute charge.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, often times profitable stocks are profitable because they tap into existing infrastructure and make money on the built up one. Once it is in, the cash flows go up, while it is built capital costs go up. For the companies you invest in – how do they use the infrastructure?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.