Dive Brief:
- Royal Farms plans to install 30 new electric vehicle chargers across nearly 20 convenience stores throughout Maryland and Delaware, according to a Tuesday announcement.
- The retailer will work with charging manufacturer Blink Charging on the rollout, which will include 60 charging ports across the 30 chargers. Six Royal Farms stores will install Blink’s 180-kilowatt DC fast charging units, while 12 locations will each receive its 60-kilowatt charging units.
- This expands Royal Farms’ EV charging program, which debuted back in 2015. Royal Farms is expected to open more charging stations with Blink hardware moving forward, according to Tuesday’s announcement.
Dive Insight:
While many convenience retailers are still hesitant to explore EV charging, Royal Farms has been testing out the service for years. The retailer has charging stations at over 20 locations across the Mid Atlantic through partnerships with Tesla and ChargePoint.
Earlier this summer, Royal Farms outlined plans to bring Tesla chargers to an additional 25 locations, as well as update the charging capabilities at many of its non-Tesla charging stations. As of this summer, Royal Farms’ existing charging network had an average of 20-25 minutes for an 80% charge, according to a company announcement in May.
Many of Royal Farms’ first charging stations were funded as part of the $1 million EV Infrastructure Program announced by the Maryland Attorney General in April 2014. Its latest charging initiative with Blink was funded through the Maryland Department of the Environment’s Electric Corridors Grants Program, according to Tuesday’s announcement.
“We are excited to announce our collaboration with Blink Charging that will expand charging capabilities to much of our network,” Tom Ruszin, fuel and environment leader for Royal Farms, said in the announcement. “Royal Farms looks forward to working with Blink on building out the EV charging network in the mid-Atlantic region.”
Founded in 1959, Baltimore-based Royal Farms operates nearly 300 c-stores throughout Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina.
