Dive Brief:
- Kwik Trip has launched a new branded program, Kwik Charge, to add electric vehicle charging to some of its stores and integrate an app to help customers find and use those chargers, the company announced on Tuesday.
- All new Kwik Trip locations will have four charging positions at them as part of this program, a company spokesperson confirmed via email. The first chargers will be online by the end of this month, and two more sites will be online by the end of the year.
- With the announcement of Kwik Charge, Kwik Trip joins other major convenience store companies like 7-Eleven and Wawa in broadening their fuel offering to include EV chargers.
Dive Insight:
While the fervor for electric vehicles has cooled somewhat, many c-stores are getting ahead of the change by putting infrastructure in place to serve those customers.
Kwik Trip’s direct-current fast chargers will offer both combined charging standard and North American charging standard connectors and provide up to 400kW of power to a single vehicle or at least 150 kW of power if four vehicles are charging at once.
Some existing sites also have added EV charging, but they do not have the four terminals customers will see under the Kwik Charge program, the spokesperson said.
Kwik Trip will also release a standalone mobile app, developed in conjunction with EV charging management software company Driivz, where customers can see locations of chargers, availability and pricing. That app is expected to roll out later this year.
“We are pleased to offer the Kwik Charge program to our guests who drive EVs,” Scott Zietlow, CEO and President of Kwik Trip, said in the announcement. “They will not only be able to charge their vehicle but can take advantage of all our quality offerings inside our stores.”
While a White House goal to have 50% of new vehicles sold be electric by 2030 may not hit its target, EVs made up 8% of new car sales in the second quarter of this year.
LaCrosse, Wisconsin-based Kwik Trip operates more than 880 convenience stores in six states under two banners, Kwik Trip and Kwik Star.
