At a certain point of EV adoption, selling gas won’t be a very profitable business, because fewer and fewer cars will need it. But there will still be some cars that need gas, that final, say, 30% of ICE cars that are still on the road. But if all or most gas stations shut down at roughly the same time, because they operate under the same business conditions, then those last few ICE drivers will be pretty out of luck, no?
To be clear, this is not an argument that we shouldn’t electrify and decarbonize as fast as possible. I’m more interested in the logistics of managing that transition. And I’m sure that gas stations are not the only case of this phenomenon.
They already don’t make money off gas
Their profits are the stuff in the store, the excuse people have for overpaying is that they’re already there.
We’ll see a lot close, and the ones that remain grow to be basic conscience stores.
They’ll still have the gas pumps, because it’s expensive to remove them. But new builds will likely just be parking lots instead of pumps.
The old stations would be what people have to rely on.
As such the ones on the outskirts would be the ones that close first.
Last gas stations will be in downtown areas where getting rid of 60 year old pumps wouldn’t gain anymore parking than people parking at the pumps.
Gas makes money. The margins are low - but the volumes are high. Most people are not buying what is inside so while margins are higher the profit is about the same
https://petrosoftinc.com/blog/how-do-gas-stations-grab-profit/
Thin margins doesn’t mean unprofitable.